Daily monitor

The Interpipe Novomoskovsk Pipe-Production Plant [NVTR UZ, U/R] announced an AGM for April 09. There are no extraordinary questions on the agenda.

The total volume of sunflower seed exports in February 2009 is going to reach its record level in five months. According to Ukroliya, sunflower seed exports in February will expand to 200 thsd mt, which is 23.5% more than total exports for the last five months of the 2008/09 marketing year.

According to an announcement made by Kredobank [ZUKB UZ, U/R], the bank is going to increase its statutory capital by UAH 1.024 bln, bringing it up from UAH 526.8 mln to UAH 1.55 bln through an additional share issue that is scheduled to take place on April 2-23, 2009. The bank plans to place 102.41 bln shares, each having a UAH 0,01 par value.

On February 24, only 0.5 thsd mt of oil was sold at Resources Auction 126, which took place on the floor of the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange. According to our source at the UICE, the average price of oil was UAH 1,502 per mt (down 28.5% from the last Auxiliary Auction 125-D on January 27), or USD 18.4 per bbl (excluding VAT, at USD/UAH 9.26, down 38.4%).

Zaporizhtransformator [ZATR UZ, N/R] – the world's largest manufacturer of transformer equipment – has announced its intention to supply 11 transformers to the Iranian company MAPNA (Iran Power Plant Project Management Company). The contract, which is worth EUR 19 mln, is to be fulfilled by April 2010.

The Bogdan Automobile Plant [LUAZ UZ, BUY] has issued a press release stating that the company finished with an overall loss of UAH 317.744 mln.

MCB Agricole [4GW1 GR, N/R], an Ukrainian agricultural producer with a land bank under lease of 100 thsd ha, has announced that it is going to reconsider its land bank.

Last week, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yuschenko, endorsed the law on a 13% increase to the import duty on all goods, except goods falling in the critical imports category (i.e. for items such as oil products, gas, etc.)

The Kharkiv-based OJSC Turboatom [TATM UZ, HOLD] – the largest turbine manufacturer in Ukraine and one of the largest energy equipment producers in the world – has announced that its revenue grew by 48% to UAH 552 mln, net profit grew by 4.4 times to reach UAH 145.4 mln in 2008.

Ukrnafta [UNAF UZ, BUY] released its official preliminary FY08 financials on February 20.