Page 66 - UKRRptAug20

9.2 ​Major corporate news 9.2.1​ Oil & gas corporate news
9.2.3​ Transport corporate news
Naftogaz Group paid UAH74.9bn to the state budget in H1 2020. ​According to recent reports for H1 2020, revenues from Naftogaz Group to the state and local budgets made up nearly UAH74.9bn, including UAH39.6bn of remaining dividends for 2019. Revenues from Naftogaz Group equaled almost 19% of total state budget revenues in H1 2020. Naftogaz group remains Ukraine’s biggest taxpayer. In 2019, Naftogaz group’s tax and dividend payments to budgets of all levels totalled nearly UAH121.4bn.
China’s hunger for Ukrainian iron helped Lemtrans boost cargo carried in the first half of this year by 26% y/y​, to 25mn tons. Lemtrans, Ukraine’s largest private operator of rail wagons, enjoyed a 54% jump in iron ore cargo, to 12.6mn tons, or half of overall cargo. Lemtrans and other owners of rail wagon fleets hope the Zelenskiy government will fulfil its promise to allow private freight trains on Ukrzaliznytsia tracks this year.
Four months after the corona quarantine started, Ukrzaliznytsia is running only one third of its suburban and long distance trains​, Ivan Yurik, acting CEO of the state railroad says. If the corona pandemic eases, he hope to restore full train service next month. At the end of July Ukraine was recording about 800 new corona cases each day.
Nibulon aims to transport up to 5mn tons of river cargo this year, ​a 30% increase over the last July-June marketing year. During the year that ended in June, Nibulon carried 3.8mn tons, up 9% over the previous marketing year. Cargo is largely grain, iron ore, coal, building materials, but also Kherson watermelons. About 85% of Nibulon’s cargo is for export. Anchored in the mouth of the Dnipro, the Nibulon Max, a new 140-meter floating crane, allows for the high speed, simultaneous pumping of grain from two barges into a seagoing mother ship.
The EBRD is loaning Nibulon $27mn to maintain river cargo development projects​ and grain trading at a time of cash flow squeeze during the economic downturn caused by coronavirus. The financing is part of the EBRD Solidarity Package, which aims to ensure continuity of key businesses during the pandemic.
S&P upgraded yesterday the long-term credit rating of Ukrzaliznytsia ​to B- from CCC, reversing its downgrade of three months ago. Triggering the upgrade, Ukrainian Railways announced Monday that it has renegotiated its $200mn loan from Sberbank Ukraine. The two events pushed up prices of the state railroad’s Eurobonds yesterday by 4-5 points.
9.2.4 ​Construction & Real estate corporate news
The European Investment Bank has agreed to loan €50mn to UNIT.City innovation park for the construction of four buildings totaling 70,000 square meters​ at the complex in northwest Kyiv’s Lukianivska district. Vasily
66​ UKRAINE Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com