Daily monitor

According to the company data, Valeriy Korotkov, the second largest shareholder, sold 6.4% of his stake (1.6 mln shares) in Astarta [AST PW, U/R] to an institutional investor on Tuesday, September 23, for about USD 25.1 per share. The deal totaled about USD 40.2 mln.

The regional administrative court of Crimea has invalidated the claim by Lviv Automobile Plant (LAZ) regarding violation of tender rules on a tender for supplying 61 trolleybuses to Crimea, which was won by Bogdan Motors [LUAZ UK]. However, Hyundai Truck, another competitor for the tender, has also filed a complaint regarding the competition results.

Agricultural companies in Ukraine harvested 32.2 mln tonnes of grain and leguminous crops as of September 17, with an average yield of 2.55 tonne per ha. Agricultural companies processed only 12.6 mln ha of sowing areas.

In 1H10, the gross foreign debt of Ukraine increased by 1.2% to USD 104.5 bn. Government sector debt added 8.7%, the banking sector lost 8.3% and foreign debt of corporations increased by 5.8%.

The Ministry of Economics of Ukraine expects an acceleration of inflation (CPI) higher than 1.2% in September and 12% in 2010. The main reasons are food price risks and utilities tariff risks.

Growth of the industrial output of Ukraine in August 2010 accelerated to 9.2% yoy to reach 10.9% in 8M10.

From January through August Ukraine’s electricity exports grew by 15.3%, to 2.5 bln kWh. This is quite a small figure given 56% YoY growth in 5M2010, and even 43% during 1H2010.

During January-August 2010, Kryukivka Carriage has increased production 4.6 times YoY to 6112 train cars, while its MoM production decline amounted to 4%.

AvtoKrAZ Holding [KrAZ UZ] plans to sell at least 50 KrAZ T17.0EH Burlak trucks to Russia in 2010. Burlaks capable of towing up to 75 tons will be used for transportation of heavy oil and gas mining equipment.

Sumy Frunze [SMASH UK] plans to supply14 compressor blocks (16 MW each) to Gazprom (Russia) for the Pochinki-Gryazovez gas pipeline construction. The blocks are to be installed in 3 new pipeline stations. Sumy Frunze has already supplied compressor blocks for the first 3 stations of the pipeline.