BVI Offshore Business: Grey Area

The Kyivenergo power distribution company has paid a UAH 170 mln gas debt to the Gaz Ukrainy gas company, clearing its debt for the natural gas it used for generating electricity in November 2009.

Kyivenergo is a joint-stock company 50% plus one share of which are owned by the state of Ukraine (this stake is contributed to the statutory capital of the national joint-stock entity the Energy Company of Ukraine), 20.35% are owned by Kapiton Trading Limited (Cyprus) and 15.72% are owned by the British Virgin Islands company Bledsoe Holdings Limited. The Haz Ukrainy actually is a subsidiary of the National joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine.

The amount of debt paid by Kyivenergo for the previous periods is UAH 5 million. In the statement of company’s financial director, it is said that the situation with payments for fuel used for getting thermal energy is still complicated, as Kyivenergo cannot settle it in full amount.

According to the information from Gaz Ukrainy, as of December 9, 2009 the power company owed UAH 865 mln for gas supplied to it since last year. By earlier information of Ukrainian News, Kyivenergo paid Gaz Ukrainy debts in the amount of UAH 130 mln on October 14, and UAH 157.4 million on October 30.

BVI-registered freight-logistics company UTi Worldwide reported its financial results for the first quarter of the year 2009, which appeared to be even worse that it had been expected by Wall Street. After announcing the results, the stock of the company fell down 5% - much more than average.

For the period ended April 30, 2009, the BVI company named the earning figure of US$9.8 mln on revenue of US$768.4 mln - much lower that market analysts’ expectations of nearly US$938 mln; and both these figures were much lower than a year ago - 27% and 35% respectively. Among the reasons for so dramatic fall of revenues of UTi Worldwide, there is the large slowdown  in worldwide shipping volumes. The company has already reported losses for the period ended January 31, 2009, and now the downfall continued.

The company also has cut expenses during this period to about US$292 mln - 20% if compared to the same last year period.

The BVI company said its earnings figures included restructuring costs and the sale of real estate in South Africa. Also, the company blamed currency fluctuations of its losses.

CEO of UTi Worldwide, Eric Kirchner, said in a statement that he wants to heighten company’s sales efforts to improve revenue growth, but did not specify what kind of measures these could be.