Latest News
Provided by James Brooke, UBN
🔵 With demand strong for Ukrainian government bonds, the Finance Ministry depressed yields on all five hryvnia bonds sold at yesterday’s auction, the Ministry reported. With yields dropping from six to 44 basis points, the final range was 9.15% for 3-month bonds to 12.05% for 3-year bonds. The government sold hryvnia bonds for the equivalent of $213 million. Also posting results on Facebook, the Ministry says it sold $42 million worth of 2-year dollar bonds at 3.9% and €70.5 million worth of 1-year euro bonds at 2.5%.
🔵 Kyiv’s 11th Regus office work space opens in Podil next month, reports the parent company, Luxembourg-based IWG Plc. Despite last year’s economic recession, total occupancy of the 10 existing Regus work spaces in Kyiv is 78%, Yulia Lytvynenko, Ukraine director of IWG, tells Interfax-Ukraine. Predicting that several large leases will be signed in coming weeks, she predicts that the overall occupancy will rise “to 83% by March.” The new Regus will occupy three floors of the new Volodymyrsky business center on Poshtova Square, near Poshtova Metro station and the Kyiv Funicular. Lytvynenko says: “The highlight, surely, will be beautiful views of the Dnipro River on the one hand and the [Volodymyrska Hill] park on the other.”
Editor’s Note: Highlights the demand for office, especially smaller spaces. Regus Kiev currently charges ~$450 per work space … or almost $100/m2 (plus common areas).
🔵 A total of $3 billion worth of deals and memorandums were signed over the last two days by Ukrainian company executives and officials in the United Arab Emirates, the third largest economy in the Middle East, after Turkey and Saudi Arabia. President Zelenskiy led a delegation of executives from 18 Ukrainian blue chip companies, including: BGV, DTEK, Dragon Capital, Epicenter, EastOne, Fortior, Horizon Capital, Interpipe, Mais, Metinvest, Oschadbank, OdesaGas, TAS Group, UMG, and Unit.City. Faris Al Mazrui, head of the fund’s investment program for post-Soviet countries, told WAM, the Emirates’ news agency. “We are impressed by the quality and caliber of Ukrainian businesses.”
Editor’s Note: With 2020 FDI at ~$0, this will make a substantial economic impact in 2021.
🔵 Ukraine’s economy returned to normal at the end of last year with fourth quarter GDP down only 0.7% below the fourth quarter of 2019. Despite the weekend lockdowns in November, consumer demand was a major force in pulling economic activity back to normal, the Economy Ministry reported on Facebook. Real wages were up 9.6% yoy.
Editor’s Note: FAR better than expected.
