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products. ​Compared to Jan. 17, prices last Friday were down 19% for slabs, and 17% for billets.
9.2 ​Major corporate news 9.2.1​ Oil & gas corporate news
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved extending the contract of Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev for another four years, to March 2024. UNIAN reports that Kobolyev’s salary was cut in half. It is unclear if Kobolyev is to receive his commission for winning the $2.9 billion arbitration settlement from Gazprom last December.
Andriy Favourov has resigned as director of gas sales and production at Naftogaz.​ The resignation comes as two newly hired Dutch executives seek to unravel what looks like a $1bn loss for the state energy company. In December, Naftogaz bet the wrong way on European natural gas prices, which plummeted by almost two thirds in the first quarter of 2020, to the lowest level in a decade.
JKX Oil & Gas reported a 9.6% y/y revenue increase to $101.7mn in 2019​, according to its March 31 filing. Its revenue in Ukraine improved 12.6% y/y to $84.3mn, which was the result of boosted hydrocarbon output (by 52% y/y). Its Russian revenue decreased 2.2% on the background of flat y/y natural gas output. The company’s EBITDA swelled 18.0% y/y to $42.4mn, according to Concorde Capital estimates, as Ukraine’s and Russia’s EBITDA both grew 20% y/y (to $42.2mn and $7.0mn, respectively) and operating losses in the U.K. increased 10% y/y. The company’s net income from continuing operations surged 72% y/y to $20.2mn, while total income advanced 46% y/y to $22.2mn. The company generated $33.0mn in cash flow from operations (up 5.4% y/y) and boosted capital expenditures 2.5x y/y to $28.8mn in 2019. Its cash balance increased 6.5% y/y to $20.7mn as of end-2019. JKX also reported that it paid its last bond tranche in February ($5.8mn), thus becoming debt-free. Besides cash, the company has open credit lines for $13.9mn, which it is not using currently. The company sold its Hungarian assets (which it reported as discontinued operations in 2019 accounts) and completed its workover programs in Russia, having decided to concentrate on investments into Ukrainian assets in 2020. JKX seems to be well prepared for the challenging situation on energy commodity market, having a solid liquidity position and no large CapEx plans. This, as well as the company’s recent victories against Ukrainian tax administrations when it won a case of tax payments.
9.2.3​ Transport corporate news
Determined to position itself as Ukraine’s leading domestic carrier, Windrose Airlines is buying eight ATR72-600 turboprops over the next 18 months. ​Seating 72 passengers, the commuter planes will be used to fly from Kyiv Boryspil to eight cities: Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kriviy Rih, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Zaporizhia. In addition, Windrose will use fly to these EU cities: Berlin, Bucharest, Burgas, Ljubljana, Sofia and Zagreb. In addition, Windrose plans to add two A320/321 jets to its fleet, Vladimir Kamenchuk, the company CEO, tells the centre for Transportation Strategies. Believed to be controlled by Ihor Kolomoisky, the airline flies charters to Egypt, Greece, Italy
57​ UKRAINE Country Report​ April 2018 ​ ​www.intellinews.com