News

Events

Name	organizer	Where
Frontier's "Invest Mongolia Tokyo 2018"	Frontier Securities	Tokyo Japan
"Open to Export" ICC WTO International business award	ICC WTO	London

NEWS

Diesel import increases but drops in gasoline import www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ According to the Statistics Division of the Mongolian Customs General Administration, Mongolia imported 19 thousand tons of auto gasoline last month, with a decrease of 10 thousand tons against the same period of previous year.

As compared with the same period of previous year, an average import price for a ton of gasoline rose by 14 percent, reaching USD668 in January, 2018.

In January, 2018 an import of diesel fuel reached 81 thousand tons, with an increase of 17 thousand tons against the same period of previous year. An average import price for a ton of diesel fuel reached USD628, with an increase of 19 percent.

M.Unurzul

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Cabinet cancels energy cooperation agreement with Oyu Tolgoi www.gogo.mn

The Government of Mongolia has cancelled a 2014 agreement signed with Oyu Tolgoi (OT) regarding the mine's energy needs.

Cabinet noted that it will commit to cooperating in the provision of energy for the mine from domestic sources, as well as in studying the possibility of building a Tavan Tolgoi thermal power station.

The cancellation of the agreement has left OT with finding alternatives to imported power as a source of energy. It is predicted that OT will explore the opportunity to build a thermal power station at the mine site. OT has stated that it will follow the articles of the 2009 investment agreement signed with the government in the future.

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GM offers $2.2 billion debt for equity swap in return for Seoul's support - sources www.reuters.com

SEOUL (Reuters) - General Motors (GM.N) has offered to convert debt of around $2.2 billion owed by its ailing South Korean operation into equity in exchange for financial support and tax benefits from Seoul, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The restructuring proposal comes after the Detroit automaker announced last week that it would shut its plant in the city of Gunsan, southwest of Seoul, by May and decide the future of the remaining three plants in the country within weeks.

The debt for equity swap would allow GM’s business in South Korea to continue operating. It was not immediately clear how the deal would affect the interest of the state-run Korea Development Bank, which owns 17 percent of GM Korea.

GM’s decision was the latest in a series of steps it has made to put profitability and innovation ahead of sales and volume. Since 2015, GM has exited unprofitable markets including Europe, Australia, South Africa and Russia.

It was not immediately clear how much fresh capital GM has demanded from the South Korean government to keep operating its Korean business, which employs nearly 16,000 people.

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Russian grain exports near record of 50mn tons www.rt.com

The growing production of grain in Russia is boosting the country’s exports, which are close to a record 50 million tons this year according to the director of the SovEcon analytical center, Andrey Sizov.
The director said that the country exported 48 million tons between July 2017 and the end of January 2018.

Last year, the country ceded its status of leading wheat exporter to the United States. The Russian Agriculture Ministry expects to regain the status by the end of this agricultural year [July 2017 — June 2018]. It forecasts grain exports to be 45 million tons against 35.5 million tons in the previous year.

Overall, agricultural production in Russia is projected to grow three percent this year, from last year’s 120.7 million tons. That would be the best-ever harvest for Russia, even counting the Soviet era.

The country’s export market is actively expanding, according to Sizov. Russia supplies grain to Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Iran, and Saudi Arabia has announced plans to become a major hub for Russian agricultural products in the Middle East.

In the near future exports to Indonesia and Thailand will increase, as well as those to Latin American countries including Mexico.

Russia has a significant share of the European market; almost 12 percent of Russian agricultural exports, worth around $2 billion, go to the continent.

Three years ago, President Vladimir Putin set a goal of making Russia the world's largest supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food.

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U.Ganzorig appointed president of Mongolian Bankers Association www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Golomt Bank U.Ganzorig has been appointed as President of the Mongolian Bankers Association (MBA), finishing tenure of the former president O.Orkhon. CEO of Trade and Development Bank O.Orkhon worked as the president of the MBA in 2015-2017.

According to the rule of the MBA, regular election meeting was organized, holding poll, where U.Ganzorig appointed as president of the MBA. Thus he will lead the association in 2018-2020.

B.Batchimeg

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Mining M&A jumps to 4-year high – expect more in 2018 www.mining.com

The value of global mining and metals deals hit a four-year high in 2017, according to accountancy firm EY, boosted by a jump in money raised on stock exchanges to a six-year high.

Mining and metals deals totalled $51 billion last year, up 15% from 2016. Activity was dominated by coal and steel transactions. However, the volume of deals fell 6% as M&A focus in the sector started shifting from divestment to strategic acquisitions.

"The focus for most of the sector in 2017 was consolidating balance sheet strength and maintaining capital discipline," EY said in a quarterly report on the sector, published on Monday.

Coal transactions surged 156 % to $8.5 billion as the world's move to renewables prompted miners to shift away from thermal coal.

One of the biggest coal deals last year was Rio Tinto's sale of its Coal and Allied mines to Australia's Yancoal for $2.7 billion.

Steel deals doubled to $13.3 billion, mainly comprising large Chinese mergers and divestments in Latin America. The report said overall China continued to be a key driver of activity, leading deals by value both as an acquirer ($18.7b, 36.5%) and as a target ($13.6b, 26.6%).

Gold transactions fell 34% to $7.3 billion as the volume of transactions fell 13% to 134 deals done. The number and value of deals in copper, nickel, potash all fell, while silver-lead-zinc and iron ore saw more activity.

Money raised by mining companies from IPOs and stock exchange listings rose to $2.8 billion, the highest in six years but still nowhere near the $17 billion raised in 2011 at the height of the commodities boom. Follow-on equity issues also rose to the highest since 2013 at $31 billion in 2017. Debt and loans together constituted $218 billion of the total money raised last year.

For 2018 EY expects deals to be fuelled by the industry's return to investment-led strategies aimed at building portfolios rather than the divestment-oriented deals that dominated in 2017. Companies' working capital requirements are also set to increase.

"Some of this activity will be to shape portfolios for future growth and sustain shareholder returns," said EY global mining and metals transactions leader Lee Downham, "but the return of transformational consolidation across the industry is unlikely as capital discipline is maintained":

Alongside this capital discipline, we began to see the emergence of investment strategies, with capital earmarked for organic projects and increasingly considered for acquisitions.

"With the buzz around new world critical minerals and battery technology, deals in lithium, copper and cobalt are expected to feature high on the agenda of management teams across the industry," according to the report.

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Chicken chaos as KFC closes outlets www.bbc.com

KFC has closed more than half of its 900 UK outlets after delivery problems meant they ran out of chicken.

Last week, the fried chicken chain switched its delivery contract to DHL, which blamed "operational issues" for the supply disruption.

It was unclear when the delivery problems would be rectified, a KFC spokesperson said.

Workers are being encouraged to take holiday but would not be forced to do so, he added.

"Our teams are working flat out all hours to get the rest back up and running as soon as possible - but it's too early to say how long it will take to clear the backlog."

KFC has set up a web page where "fans" can find their nearest outlet that is still open.

It said that in the restaurants owned by the chain, staff on short-term contracts would be paid the average hours worked per day over the past 12 weeks, while those on salaries would be paid as normal.

However, 80% of KFC outlets are run on a franchise basis.

"Franchisees will be seeking their own independent advice, but we're encouraging them to adopt this policy too," said the chain.

Until last Tuesday, KFC's chicken was delivered by South African-owned distribution group Bidvest, which describes itself as "the leading supplier of logistical and supply chain solutions to the UK hospitality and restaurant sector".

But after the change in the contract, many of the food giant's outlets began running out of chicken products.

'Teething problems'
"The chicken crossed the road, just not to our restaurants," KFC said on Twitter.

"We've brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they've had a couple of teething problems - getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex!" it added, apologising to customers for the inconvenience.

"We won't compromise on quality, so no deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed, and others are operating a limited menu or shortened hours."

The statement listed KFC restaurants that were still open despite the problems.

The distribution network uses software developed by the firm Quick Service Logistics (QSL).

The GMB union said it had tried to warn KFC that switching from Bidvest to DHL was a mistake. The change led to 255 job losses and the closure of a Bidvest depot, said Mick Rix, GMB national officer.

He said: "Bidvest are specialists - a food distribution firm with years of experience. DHL are scratching around for any work they can get, and undercut them.

"KFC are left with hundreds of restaurants closed while DHL try and run the whole operation out of one distribution centre. Three weeks ago KFC knew they had made a terrible mistake, but by then it was too late.

One KFC customer, Claire, told BBC Radio 5 live she was surprised when she went out with her children at the weekend.

"We went on Saturday night to our local KFC in Luton and queued for about 20 minutes in the drive-thru, about 15 cars in the queue, and when we got to the actual counter and asked for our standard family bucket, we were told there was no chicken," she said.

"The kids, who are nine-year-old twins, they wanted chicken and clearly it wasn't available, so we said there's nothing available that we wanted, and we then had the joy of queuing to get back out again."

Other disgruntled KFC customers have been taking to Twitter to express their dismay at the shortages.

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Foreign trade for the first one month of 2018 www.gogo.mn

A result of foreign trade for the first one month of 2018 has been based on 28168 export, and 15469 import customs declarations and other non customs resources of information.

679 export and 342 import declarations belong to the goods crossed through seasonal ports.

A result of total turnover of foreign trade for the first 1 month of 2018 amounted 785.0 mln.USD which increased in 100.4 mln.USD or 14.7 percent against the same period of the last year.

Export exceeded import in 62.7 mln.USD and foreign trade balance became positive.

The volume of export is 423.8 mln.USD which means decrease by 1.1 percent if compared with the same period of the last year.

99.1 percent of exported goods comes to transactions paid in hard currency.

In total export minerals amounted

351.7 mln.USD or 83.0%; natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones amounted 27.2 mln.USD or 6.4%; vegetable products 4.1 mln.USD or 1.0%; export of raw hides and skins, leather, furskins and articles thereof equaled to 3.3 mln.USD or 0.8%, textiles and textile articles 10.3 mln.USD or 2.4% and in total 93.6% of export came to these goods.

Сrude oil, iron ores and concentrates, copper concentrate, molybdenum concentrates and zinc ores and concentrates were exported to China (100.0%), coal were exported to China (96.1%). Flouspar concentrates were exported to China (53.6%), the Russian Federation (46.1%); leather of bovine or equine animals were exported to China; 100.0 percent of combed cashmere to China; most of exported raw hides and skins, washed cashmere comes to China, and gold were exported to United Kingdom (100.0%) and 88.9 percent of total export belong to these goods.

Mongolia has exported goods to 37 foreign countries including

China (88.5%),
United Kingdom (6.6%),
the Russian Federation (1.2%) and 96.3% of whole export comes to these countries.
Goods and raw materials with value of 361.1 mln.USD were imported and the volume of total import increased by 83.9 mln.USD or 30.3% in comparison with the same period of 2017.

Imported goods consist of transactions paid in hard currency (94.9%), goods supplied by foreign loan (0.1%), goods imported as foreign aid (0.4%), goods imported as foreign investment (3.3%), processed goods (1.1%).

In total import machinery, mechanic equipment and parts thereof, electric appliances, parts thereof amounted with value of 80.1 mln.USD (22.2%), minerals-90.4 mln.USD (25.0%) and among them oil products were 75.0 mln.USD (83.0%), products of animal or vegetable origin and foodstuff 49.4 mln.USD (13.7%), vehicles and aircraft, parts there of 43.3 mln.USD (12.0%), plastics and rubber and articles thereof 15.4 mln.USD (4.3%), base metals and products thereof – 25.3 mln.USD (7.0%), chemical products – 22.8 mln.USD (6.3%) and 90.5% of the total import comes to these goods and products).

Goods with value of 1273.4 thous.USD have been imported as foreign aid from international financial and economic organizations and donor-countries. If we take into consideration the countries of origin Switzerland (39.6%), China (29.3%), Republic of Korea (14.8%).

The goods, donated from donor countries, came from the Switzerland (39.6%), China (29.2%), Japan (20.0%).

Goods worth 392.3 thous.USD were imported as foreign loan by the international financial and economic organizations and donor-countries and these goods were originating from different countries such as the USA (50.6%), China (25.1%), Republic of Korea (15.9%).

Total loan goods were imported as government loans. If we take into consideration the lenders, loan lent from Japan (72.1%) and from Republic of Korea (15.9%).

In total goods with value of 12.0 mln.USD were imported to the charter fund of joint ventures and companies with foreign investment and these goods were originating from different countries such as China (37.6%) and the Russian Federation (62.2%).

Mongolia has imported goods originating from 99 different countries including

Russian Federation (34.1%),
China (29.3%),
USA (4.5%),
Japan (9.0%),
Republic of Korea (3.6%)
Federal Republic of Germany (2.3%) and goods from these countries are equal to 82.8% of total import.

...

NSO releases its January socio-economic report www.gogo.mn

Individuals earning 500,000 to 700,000 MNT a month made up 19.9 percent of the population in 2017, falling to 17 percent in January 2018. The economy saw 5.1 percent growth in 2017.

The nation's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 16.9 trillion MNT based on 2017's preliminary data, an increase of 5.1 percent over 2016.

As of January 2018, the state budget’s balanced income was 530.4 billion MNT, expenditure for debt repayment was 416.2 billion MNT, giving the balance an 114.2 billion MNT surplus.

Tax income increased by 29.8 percent compared to 2016, reaching 468.6 billion MNT.

Income tax increased by 44 billion MNT,
Social insurance income by 24.5 billion MNT,
Excise tax income by 24.1 billion MNT,
Foreign activity income rose by 10.6 billion MNT over January 2017.
Foreign trade volume reached 785 million MNT, with export totaling 423.8 million USD and import 361.1 million USD.

The consumer price index increased by 1.4 percent over December 2017, and by 6.9 percent compared to January 2017. Retail sector sales reached 15.6 trillion MNT in 2017, which increased by 18.4 percent over 2016.

...

JSCs to distribute share dividends www.gogo.mn

The board of Talkh Chikher JSC voted to distribute share dividends from 2017's net profits to its shareholders.

Dividends per share will be 170 MNT. The company will finalize its shareholder list by April 6, and begin granting dividends at its official headquarters on July 1.

“MAKHIMPEX”

According to the Resolution No.:01 of “Mongol Post”JSC’s Board of Directors Meeting held on 13 February 2018, the Decision to distribute dividends of MNT100.00 per share from net profit of 2017 financial year has been approved.

The record date will be the registration date of Shareholders Annual Meeting5 April 2018 , and dividends will be paid to shareholders by cash at company building starting from 1 October 2018.

“MONGOL POST”

According to the Resolution No.:18/01 of “Mongol Post”JSC’s Board of Directors Meeting held on 13 February 2018, the Decision to distribute dividends of MNT 273.4 million or MNT2.74 per share from net profit of 2017 financial year has been approved.

The record date will be the registration date for 2018 Shareholders Annual Meeting, and dividends will be transferred to shareholders’ account at Mongolian Central Securities Depository /MCSD starting from 1 May 2018.

“ADUUNCHULUUN”

According to the Resolution No.:2 of “Aduunchuluun”JSC’s Board of Directors Meeting held on 7 February 2018, the Decision to distribute dividends of MNT 409.7 million or MNT130.00 per share from net profit of 2017 financial year has been approved.

The record date will be the registration date for 2018 Shareholders Annual Meeting, and dividends will be transferred to shareholders’ account at Mongolian Central Securities Depository /MCSD.

“TAKHI KO”

According to the Resolution No.:5 of “Takhi Ko”JSC’s Board of Directors Meeting held on 5 February 2018, the Decision to distribute dividends of MNT 128.5 million or MNT108.00 per share from net profit of 2017 financial year has been approved.

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Category

Events

Events

NEWS

Diesel import increases but drops in gasoline import www.montsame.mn

Cabinet cancels energy cooperation agreement with Oyu Tolgoi www.gogo.mn

GM offers $2.2 billion debt for equity swap in return for Seoul's support - sources www.reuters.com

Russian grain exports near record of 50mn tons www.rt.com

U.Ganzorig appointed president of Mongolian Bankers Association www.montsame.mn

Mining M&A jumps to 4-year high – expect more in 2018 www.mining.com

Chicken chaos as KFC closes outlets www.bbc.com

Foreign trade for the first one month of 2018 www.gogo.mn

NSO releases its January socio-economic report www.gogo.mn

JSCs to distribute share dividends www.gogo.mn

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