Daily monitor

According to the state wholesale electricity operator “Energorynok”, from November 10 through November 16, 2008, electricity consumption in Ukraine slumped 13.2% YoY, from 24.6 GW per week for this period in November 2007 to 21.4 GW per week in November 2008.

Difficulties in financing the needed investment into the Ukrainian electricity sector and the high level of depreciation of its assets are the key reasons behind Fitch’s negative outlook on the sector.

Ukrsotsbank [USCB UZ, U/R] has issued its report on the banks activities for the first nine months of 2008 in accordance with Ukrainian accounting standards. The bank increased its net assets by 24.1% in January-September 2008, establishing the value of net assets at UAH 38.753 bln (UAH 6.61 / USD 1).

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has announced preliminary figures witnessing that the CA deficit grew to USD 1.9 bln in October as compared to USD 0.9 bln in September. Overall, the CA deficit reached USD 10.5 bln (negative 6.5% of GDP) in January-October 2008.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry plans to order 1,000 KrAZ trucks from the AvtoKrAZ holding company in 2009, according to an announcement by Serhii Kyrychenko, the General Chief of Staff for the Ukrainian armed forces, made during his recent visit to the plant.

BM Bank, the holder of Kyivmedpreparat’s three-year bonds, is planning to sue to the local court regarding the case of Kyivmedpreparat and its underwriter LLC “Arta Zennie Bumagi” over a bond buyout.

In November 2008, Nadra Bank [NADR UZ, N/R] was on schedule with the repayment of a USD 100 mln debut Eurobond issue and a USD 130 mln syndicated loan that it has acquired. The Eurobond issue, which was arranged by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and the UBS Investment Bank, was successfully placed in 2005 at a rate of 9.5%.

The Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine has refused to accept a complaint issued by CJSC Kyivstar GSM, requesting that the Court cancel a ruling by Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals, issued in July 2008, regarding a case about the issuance of a license to use 2.1 GHz frequency bands for 3G mobile communications without using a tender-based process.

Fitch, an international rating agency, downgraded the Myronivskiy Khliboprodukt [MHPC LI, U/R] bond’s rating B in foreign currency from stable to negative. According to an official press release made by Fitch yesterday, the downgrading occurred as a result of the narrow focus of the company on the Ukrainian poultry market, coupled with possible problems with expansion plans for 2009.

The European Commission has acknowledged the compliance of Ukraine’s sunflower oil to European standards. The Commission inspected Ukraine’s oil producers in September. The results of the inspection were officially released yesterday by the Government of Ukraine. The Eurocomission admitted that Ukrainian state systems of prevention of oil contamination meets all European standards, which are defined in the Eurocommission decision # 2008/433.