Editor’s Note: This is issue 129 of Ukrainian State-Owned Enterprises Weekly, covering events from April 20-26, 2024. The Kyiv Independent is reposting it with permission.
Corporate governance of SOEs
Economy Ministry announces a competitive selection to find an independent member for Ukrenergo’s supervisory board. On April 23, the Economy Ministry reported that the SOE Nomination Committee approved the candidate requirements. The deadline to apply is May 22.
The decision to find the final independent board member that the company needs wasapproved in November 2023.
As we reported in June 2023 in Issue 95, at that time – more than a year after Dejan Ostojic stepped down in April 2022 – the Cabinet still had to select and approve one independent member for Ukrenergo’s supervisory board. In the meantime, more than two years went by.
According to Ukrenergo’s charter, the supervisory board should consist of seven members: four independent members and three state representatives.
According to the current information on Ukrenergo’s website, the supervisory board now has three independent members (Peder Andreasen, Daniel Dobbeni, and Roman Pionkowski) and three state representatives (Yuriy Boyko, Yuriy Tokarskyi, and Oleksandr Baraniuk).
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Hence, independent members do not constitute a majority of the board, which does not meet the requirements of the law or Ukrenergo’s charter. See our Issue 95 for more detail.
As we also wrote in Issue 95, Ukrenergo’s supervisory board appeared to have no chairperson and no committees at that time.
In case of the board chair, this suggests that the board had to elect a chair every time for each of its meetings.
In case of board committees, this suggests that Ukrenergo’s supervisory board does not comply with the law. Specifically, the Law on Joint-Stock Companies requires that Ukrenergo should have at least an audit committee and a nomination and remuneration committee.
As we reported in Issue 100, on Aug. 28, the supervisory board of Ukrenergo elected its independent member Daniel Dobbeni as the new chairperson. See Issue 100 for more detail.
In September 2023 (Issue 104), we reported that the White House sent Ukraine a list of priority reforms, which, among other things, included appointing a seventh member to Ukrenergo’s supervisory board. See Issue 104 for more detail.
Banks
PrivatBank contributes 3% to the state budget in taxes and dividends. PrivatBank paid Hr 50 billion ($1.3 billion) to the state budget in taxes and dividends, the bank’s supervisory board member Yuliia Metsher reported on April 22.
Hr 50 billion is as much as 3% of total projected state budget revenues for 2024.
As we reported in Issue 118, on Feb. 5, the Cabinet of Ministers set the minimal dividend pay-out ratio for SOEs and state-owned banks at 80%, with some major exceptions.
PrivatBank would pay 80%, which makes it the biggest contributor to the state budget among SOEs and state-owned banks. The bank reported a net profit of Hr 37.8 billion ($956 million) in 2023. See Issue 118 for more detail.
As we wrote in Issue 119, on Feb. 12, PrivatBank advanced Hr 26 billion ($657 million) in income tax and the first tranche of dividends for 2023.
PrivatBank posts Hr 14 billion net profit in Q1 2024. On April 25, PrivatBank reported that its net profit in January-March 2024 was Hr 13.86 billion ($350 million). This is 14% lower than in Q1 2023 because of the higher tax rate and changing macroeconomic conditions. The partial release of loan provisions and the quality of the loan portfolio had a positive impact.
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Partial release of loan provisions means that the bank decided to free up some of the reserves it had set aside previously to cover potential losses on non-performing loans.
The bank reinvested the funds from repayments on domestic foreign-currency government bonds into bonds with a longer maturity, which required additional provisioning.
This suggests that the bank needs to set aside more reserves to cover potential losses from longer-maturity bonds.
The devaluation of the hryvnia during this period negatively revaluated the bank’s foreign currency position (on the liabilities side), partly offset by a positive revaluation of indexed domestic government bonds.
As we wrote in Issue 118, PrivatBank reported a net profit of Hr 37.8 billion ($956 million) in 2023. See Issue 118 for more detail.
Energy sector
Ukraine faces another Russian attack on its energy facilities. On April 27, the Energy Ministry reported that Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again, damaging facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv oblasts.
According to the ministry, the attack damaged facilities and injured one worker.
Russian forces also attacked a gas infrastructure facility in the western region, the ministry said. Later, the Naftogaz Group said that no one was injured, and the attack did not affect customer utility access.
See SOE Weekly’s Issues 125 and 127 on previous attacks on underground gas storage facilities.
According to Ukrenergo, it had to disconnect its main overhead line in the western region for safety’s sake. The emergency repair work was underway, the company added.
Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy holding, reported that Russia attacked four of its thermal power plants, severely damaging equipment. Early reports indicated that there were injured workers, the company said.
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After every Russian mass missile attack on Ukraine’s vital infrastructure, emergency outages take place, lasting for days due to the ongoing repair works. During such outages, people in Ukraine are often left without electricity, heating, water supply, or access to mobile phone networks.
As we reported in Issue 124, on March 22, Ukraine faced the largest Russian missile and drone attack on its energy facilities. See Issue 124 for more detail.
A week later, Ukrenergo faced yet another Russian missile and drone attack. See more inIssue 125.
As we wrote in Issue 127, on April 11, Ukraine faced the third Russian attack on its energy facilities in one month. The Trypillia Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in Kyiv oblast was completely destroyed. See Issue 127 for detail.
Naftogaz leaves the current gas tariff for households unchanged for at least another year. On April 23, Naftogaz’s subsidiary, Naftogaz Gas Supply Company, reported extending its “Fixed” tariff plan for another year. This is in line with the government’s current moratorium on gas price increases. As before, customers can buy a cubic meter of gas for Hr 7.96 (including VAT).
Naftogaz Gas Supply Company provides gas to 12.4 million Ukrainian households. All these customers receive natural gas under the annual “Fixed” tariff plan. The tariff remains valid through April 30, 2025, Naftogaz explained.
“Naftogaz acts in the national interest. Amid the war and difficult economic situation, we must support Ukrainians. Our company supplies gas to more than 12 million households. And we are now guaranteeing the availability of resources and a fixed price for the year ahead to all of them,” Naftogaz’s CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said.
As we wrote in December 2023 (Issue 113), Ekonomichna Pravda (EP) wrote that, according to USAID, the total level of unsettled debts in the gas market exceeded Hr 190 billion ($4.8 billion) in early September 2023.
According to the data of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) seen by EP, the total debt exceeded Hr 200 billion ($5.1 billion) as of Oct. 1, 2023.
“Our goal is to gradually move to economically justified energy tariffs and cancel all PSOs (public service obligations) by the fourth quarter of 2025. This should be done in conjunction with the systematic settlement of debts in the gas and district heating markets,” Oleksandr Butenko, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure, then explained. See Issue 113 for more detail.
Privatisation
Cabinet puts Ukraine Hotel in Kyiv on privatization list. On April 23, the Cabinet of Ministers designated Ukraine Hotel as a large-scale asset for privatization.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) valued the hotel at Hr 1.04 billion ($26 million) excluding VAT, according to the Fund’s head, Vitaliy Koval. “We are preparing for the auction, which is scheduled for the end of summer – or we may even go into the third quarter," he said.
As we wrote inIssue 116, the SPFU plans to put Kyiv’s four-star Ukraine Hotel up for privatization. According to Koval, the hotel is under-booked because of martial law and has racked up more than Hr 45 million ($1.1 million) in debts. See Issue 116 for more detail.
Confiscation of Russian assets, nationalization, and asset seizure
Verkhovna Rada allows ARMA to buy military bonds with seized foreign currency funds. On April 23, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Draft Law No. 10397, which allows the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) to invest seized foreign currency funds into military bonds.
According to the draft law, ARMA will have the right to purchase the government’s domestic “Military Bonds” with foreign currency funds until the current martial law is lifted, plus one month. Currently, ARMA can only pay for bonds in hryvnias. ARMA is the only central executive body authorized to buy military bonds, the agency added.
In 2023, ARMA held 3.6 million bonds worth Hr 3.7 billion ($93 million); they earned over Hr 195.8 million ($4.9 million) in income. Some of these have been redeemed in 2024. Today, ARMA holds almost 2.4 million military bonds worth about Hr 2.5 billion ($63,000).
Ukrainian SOE Weekly is an independent weekly digest based on a compilation of the most important news related to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-owned banks in Ukraine. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the editorial team of the Ukrainian SOE Weekly. The SOE Weekly is produced and financed by Andriy Boytsun. Communications support is provided and financed by CFC Big Ideas. The SOE Weekly is not financed or influenced by any external party. Editorial team: Andriy Boytsun, Oleksiy Pavlysh, Dmytro Yablonovskyi, Oleksandr Lysenko, and Mariia Kramar.
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