• Oleksandr Yaroslavsky's DCH Group plans to involve Rothschild and Co. as an adviser in an international consortium it hopes to cobble together to buy the Odessa portside chemical plant, Interfax Ukraine reported.

• A German company, Nord Areal Energy GmbH, intends to build a solar array and solar electrical station in Trostyanets, a city in northeastern Ukraine's Sumy region, Novoe Vremya reported. Construction at the 21-hectare site is to begin in March.

• ArcelorMittal, whose steel mill in Kryvyi Rih is the largest in Ukraine, said law enforcement officials were disrupting business with unwarranted inspections, according to Reuters.

• Prime Minister Volodomyr Groysman touted Ukraine's showing in Brand Finance's annual Nation Brands report on the world's most valuable nation brands, Ekonomicheskaya Pravda reported. Ukraine's brand value rose 39 percent from 2015, making it the world's third-fastest-growing nation brand. The report cited «a big improvement in the country's ability to retain its most talented workers.»

• The Canadian Parliament will start work next week on ratifying the FTA agreement with Ukraine, Ukrinform reported.

• International ratings agency S&P; affirmed its B-/B rating and stable outlook for Ukraine, various news agencies reported.

• Ukrtransgaz is to announce a new tender for reconstruction of compressor stations, Interfax Ukraine reported.

• Ukrzaliznytsya plans to launch its service of the Intercity fast trains connecting Kyiv, Lviv and Przemysl, the Polish border city, on Dec. 23, Novoe Vremya reported. The route will run daily through the year, and the trip from the Kyiv to Poland will take 6.5 hours.

• Total passenger flow on Ukraine's airlines in the first 11 months of 2016 was up 29 percent year on year, according to Novoe Vremya.

• Roughly 30 percent of the cost of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery with a national level of 50 percent or more could be refunded to farmers next year, Interfax Ukraine reported. Minister Taras Kutoviy said: «We want the localization to grow. We tell manufacturers in public that along with the economic potential, they should boost the localization level.»

For comments and news tips, please email UBJ AM editor David Edwards at david.edwards@theubj.com.