Daily monitor

According to Kommersant, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest brewer, may eventually sell its Russian and Ukrainian beer business as it raises cash to pay down debt.

According to a memo from the Ukrainian State Statistics Committee, consumer prices grew 1.5% MoM (4.4% YTD and 20.9% YoY), compared to a 2.9% MoM growth in January 2009 and 2.7% MoM growth in February 2008.

Ukrainian major pharmaceuticals producer Farmak [FARM UZ, HOLD] announced on Tuesday, February 24 that is posted a net loss of UAH 71.86 mln (USD 13.56 mln) for 2008.

The Dyckerhoff Zement group (Germany) extended the first credit payment to its affiliate cement plant, the JSC ‘Volyn Cement’ [VOLC UZ, U/R] as the first tranche of a line of credit totaling EUR 20 mln.

According to a note from the National Bank of Ukraine, foreign reserves fell 8.2% MoM (USD 2.36 bln) in February 2009, thus reaching USD 26.46 bln.

Kryukiv Railcar [KVBZ UZ, U/R] released its official preliminary 2008 financials on March 4. Highlights of the P&L (using exchange rates of USD/UAH 5.27 for FY08 and 5.05 for FY07) include net income at USD 75.9 mln (up 91.6%).

According to data from the Ministry of Economy, the merchandise balance deficit shrank 23.5% MoM in February to USD 276.2 mln.

Dniprooblenergo [DNON UZ, BUY] held its first AGM in 2009, making it the first among Ukrainian electricity distributors to do so. The company decided to capitalize 100% of its 2008 net income. 5% will be allocated to the reserve fund and the other 95% will go to fund the development of grids. DNON’s net income in 2008 totalled UAH 84 mln.

Sumy Frunze Machine Building [SMASH UZ, N/R], one of largest European producers of equipment for the oil, gas, and chemical industries, has reported that it has secured a new contract with the Russian company ‘PH-Purneftegaz’, which is a second largest subsidiary of the petroleum company ‘Rosneft’.

According to the National Association of Ukrainian Sugar Producers “Ukrsugar”, the amount of arable land cultivated with sugar beet will possibly shrink by at least 11.4% YoY to 350 thsd ha in the 2009/10 marketing year.