News (#04 April 2017)

Biznews

State Policy

Postal provider Ukrposhta becomes a joint-stock company

Ukrposhta, the Ukrainian state-owned postal service, has completed the process of reorganization and turned into a joint-stock company on the model of such European companies as Deutsche Post, Austria Post or PostNL. The state registrar approved all the necessary documents and the company charter, thereby completing the process of reorganization.

Corporatization will allow Ukrposhta to establish an independent board and to attract financial partners for its investment projects. However, the company’s shares will be fully owned by the state as Ukrposhta is on the list of the country’s strategic companies.

Establishment and approval of the company’s Supervisory Board is expected in the near future.

Sanctions

Ukraine imposed sanctions against Russian banks

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has put into effect the Decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of 15 March 2017 On Application of Personal Special Economic and other Restrictive Measures (sanctions) against banks with state Russian capital, which operate in Ukraine.

Sanctions for a period of one year will be applied to PJSC Sberbank, PJSC VS Bank, PSC Joint-Stock Commercial Industrial & Investment Bank, PJSC VTB Bank, JSC BM Bank in preventing capital withdrawal outside Ukraine by these legal entities in favor of persons related to them.

The Cabinet of Ministers must, along with the National Bank of Ukraine, ensure implementation and monitoring of the effectiveness of sanctions and take immediate measures to prohibit investment of funds of state enterprises, institutions, organizations and business entities, in whose authorized capitals the state possesses corporate rights, in the said banks.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine must inform competent authorities of the European Union, the United States of America and other states about the imposition of sanctions and raise the issue of applying similar restrictive measures to relevant legal entities.

M&A

Samsung bought electrical goods manufacturer for USD 8 billion

Samsung Electronics, the South Korean electronics manufacturer, has completed the transaction on acquisition of Harman International Industries, an American manufacturer of household and automotive network electronic equipment. The total value of the transaction is about USD 8 billion.

Samsung Electronics is an international electronics manufacturing company that makes semiconductors, telecommunications equipment, memory chips, liquid crystal displays, mobile phones and monitors. Harman International Industries was founded in 1980. AMCU

AMCU caught mobile operators in tariff manipulations

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine caught mobile operators in carrying out manipulations with informing their subscribers about tariffs for voice communication. It is considering cases on the grounds of billing principles violations by Kyivstar, MTS Ukraine and Lifecell mobile operators since 2016. According to AMCU data, companies disseminate information that confuses consumers.

Mobile operators, when informing a subscriber about their voice service, usually indicate that the rate is UAH X per second. At the same, operators also inform about billing principles for calls.

For example, Kyivstar specifies that calls are billed per second. Then it is added that calls are billed for the first second of every minute of a conversation in the amount specified as cost per minute, and seconds from the 2nd to the 60th are not billed.

Lifecell also specifies that billing is per second. But it is also added that billing is carried out for the first second of every minute of a conversation. And the remaining 59 seconds are provided against the cost of the first second.

MTS Ukraine specifies that billing is carried out for the first second of every minute. However, the operator does not specify that billing is per second.

On 22 December the AMCU passed recommendations to MTS so that the operator does not confuse subscribers. And according to the agency data, MTS eliminated the violations.

As to Kyivstar and Lifecell, the investigation continues. In fact, they pass billing per minute as billing per second. Therefore, the Committee will likely impose sanctions.

IT

Google started money transfers via Gmail

Google has provided users of its Gmail mail service with a new convenient tool for transferring funds based on Android.

Now, right in your account you can request and transfer funds. However, such functionality is only available in the US and Britain at present.

Google has a special service called Google Wallet, which was integrated with Gmail as early as in 2013. Nowadays the company made payments more convenient — full-scale operation was started right through the Gmail application on Android.

Everything happens under the same pattern as adding a file to the list. Only now, instead of a file, a request for transfer of funds and amount are added. You can send invoices to users who do not have a Gmail account.

Google launched such functionality to compete with PayPal, Venmo and Square Cash. Moreover, you can also transfer funds through Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and other messengers.

Money Transfer

Russia prohibited money transfers to Ukraine

The State Duma of the Russian Federation at its meeting on 22 March adopted a law in the third reading that limits money transfers from Russia to foreign countries through foreign payment systems.

The document is aimed at eliminating negative consequences of prohibition on operation of Russian payment systems in the territory of Ukraine, notes the author of the document in the explanatory note.

At the same time, provisions of the law will apply to prohibitions already imposed by foreign countries against payment systems registered in the Russian Federation.

The adopted Law is called On Amendments to the Law on the National Payment System and will enter into force 30 days after the day of its official publication.

According to amendments, when a foreign state introduces prohibitions against payment systems, whose operators are registered with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, a cross-border transfer from Russia to the territory of such state can be carried out only with the help of an operator controlled by Russian legal entities. These rules will also apply to transfers taking place without the opening of a bank account.

In late October 2016, Ukraine prohibited the operation of a number of Russian payment systems, including Golden Crown and Unistream.

According to results of the first 9 months of 2016, Ukrainians working abroad transferred USD 3.259 billion to Ukraine, of which USD 758 million was transferred from the Russian Federation.

Energy

Energy Efficiency Fund

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted Draft Law No.5598 On the Energy Efficiency Fund in its first reading. The purpose of the fund is support of energy efficiency initiatives, introduce tools to stimulate and support implementation of measures to ensure (improve) energy efficiency of buildings and energy conservation, mainly in the residential sector.

It is expected that the Fund’s activities will create conditions for state support and stimulation of measures to increase energy efficiency, economic use of energy resources by the population, improvement in the population’s living standards as a result of reducing the cost of energy resources payments and will enhance the state’s energy independence and energy security.

The document provides for the creation of an internal hierarchical organizational structure of the Fund, consisting of the supervisory board, directorate, technical and financial offices.

 

Naftogaz reduced prices for manufacturing industry

From 1 April 2017 the national oil and gas holding Naftogaz of Ukraine reduced minimum prices charged for natural gas for industrial consumers by 10.3% as compared with March 2017 — to UAH 7,675.2 per thousand cubic meters from UAH 8,553.6 per thousand cubic meters. At the same time, from 1 April maximum prices for natural gas for industrial consumers are also reduced by 9.7% — to UAH 8,516.4 per thousand cubic meters as compared with UAH 9,439.2 in March.

Naftogaz’s price proposals are differentiated depending on volume of purchase, terms of payment and status of previous settlements. If a buyer has no debt owed to Naftogaz or will purchase at least 50 million cubic meters of gas per month, then a minimum price of fuel is set for this. In all other cases a higher price is applied. All fuel prices indicated include VAT and tariffs for transportation through main and distribution pipelines.

It should also be noted that from 1 October 2015, a new law on the natural gas market came into force, which deprived the National Commission, which conducts regulatory activities in the energy sector, of the right to set prices of natural gas for manufacturing industry.

 

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