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changed, the $500mn loan, which is more than [UAH] 1bn of loss as a result to our net profit.” Revenues were up 14% and amounted to UAH18bn, and the OIBDA (operating income before depreciation of fixed assets and intangible assets) grew by 18% year-over-year, reaching UAH9.8bn. Vodafone Ukraine had 19mn customers as of the end of last year making it's the second largest mobile phone operator in the country. The operator's 4G network covers 81% of the country's territory, which is 12% higher than the previous indicator for 2019, Interfax reports. At the end of 2020, the number of Vodafone Ukraine data users was 12.2mn, and the number of 4G users was 7.3mn. Over the past year, the use of data traffic grew by 26%.
The EBRD is lending the hryvnia equivalent of $65mn to Datagroup, a fast growing telecommunications company, to buy Volia, Ukraine’s leading pay-TV and cable broadband service, the bank announced yesterday in a press release. With a majority of shares owned by the fund, Horizon Capital, Datagroup calls itself a leading provider of fiber-optic infrastructure and digital services in Ukraine.
BlaBlaCar, the Paris-based road travel platform, has acquired Octobus, a Ukrainian cloud platform that allows bus carriers to automate their business processes. The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, comes as the car-sharing service seeks combine on one platform carpooling and bus offerings for its 90mn users worldwide. In 2019, BlaBlaCar acquired Busfor, Ukraine’s largest aggregator of bus routes. Today, 5mn Ukrainians use BlaBlaCar, making Ukraine one of the three fastest growing countries among the 22 where company operates.
9.2.9 Utilities corporate news
DTEK is preparing to commission Ukraine’s first industrial energy storage system, reported Emanuele Volpe, innovation director of the power company. Located in Energodar, next to the Zaporizhia thermal power plant, the storage unit has a capacity of 1 MW and a capacity of 2.25 MW-year. Designed for the accumulation, storage and delivery of electricity to the grid, such systems could help smooth the peaks and lows of renewable production. The US company, Honeywell, supplied the lithium-ion energy storage system. A Canadian company, Sungrid, was a key contractor.
9.1.10 Renewables corporate news
Qatar’s Nebras Power and Kyiv’s UDP Renewables have entered into a consortium. It's designed to yield up to $250mn in joint investment in Ukrainian solar and wind plants by the end of next year, said Sergiy Yevtushenko, UDP’s co-founder and managing partner, on Facebook yesterday. Yevtushenko wrote, Nebras, a state-owned company, will buy control of six solar stations, noting Monday’s deal comes after two years of negotiations. He added: “The next stage of the partnership will be the implementation of new wind power projects which will create new capacity in ‘green’ energy to provide for the needs of about 310,000 average households.”
74 UKRAINE Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com