KIEV, Dec. 8 - Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest international vertically integrated mining and metal group, on December 1 signed a “standstill agreement“ with banks and other creditors allowing it until January 31, 2016 to avoid default.

KIEV, Dec. 8 – Ukraine has fewer than 10 troubled banks, Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund Managing Director Kostiantyn Vorushylin said.

"Fortunately, there are few. Less than 10. I would not say more and knock on wood," Vorushylin said in an interview with Business weekly.

KIEV, Dec. 5 - Bank of Georgia (BOG), the largest financial institution in Georgia, has signed a memorandum with PrivatBank (Dnipropetrovsk) and PrivatBank's subsidiary PB Group, on the acquisition of 100% of Georgian PrivatBank for 92 million lari ($51 million), according to BOG.

KIEV, Dec. 8 – The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine on December 4 conducted raids at three energy and fuel companies – National Nuclear Generating Company EnergoAtom, Skhidny Mining and Centrenergo.

KIEV, Dec. 5 – The funds of U.S. Franklin Templeton Investments in September-November bought more Ukrainian eurobonds with a total face value of $1.4 billion on the foreign debt market, increasing the amount of the securities owned to $6 billion, the Bloomberg news agency has reported.

KIEV, Dec. 6 - Kriukov Car Building Works (KCBW, Poltava region) will produce a train for the line between Kiev and Boryspil International Airport, Air Express National Project announced.

According to the announcement, the decision is stipulated in an agreement signed with China National Machinery Complete Industry Engineering Corporation on December 5 during the Ukrainian-Chinese business forum in Beijing.

BEIJING/KIEV, Dec. 6 – Ukraine's Kyivhydroinvest has signed a memorandum of construction for a deep water port 25 meters deep in Crimea at a cost of $3 billion with China's Beijing Interoceanic Canal Investment Management (BICIM), whose owner Wang Jing has a concession agreement to build a water way to Nicaragua to compete with the Panama Canal.

KIEV, Dec. 7 – Ukraine's international reserves shrank by 5.1%, or $1.754 billion, in November, to $32.408 billion, the State Statistics Service reported.

According to the report, Ukraine's international reserves decreased by 6.3% or $2.168 billion, from $34.576 billion in January-November.

KIEV, Dec. 8 - Stirol Concern (Horlivka, Donetsk region), which is under the control of Dmytro Firtash, has launched a third ammonia production unit, which was idle for three years, and increased the its production facilities' output to 100%.

KIEV, Dec. 7 - Kirovohrad Regional State Administration has approved the allocation of land for the construction of a nuclear fuel plant in the village of Smolyne, the administration said.