KIEV, March 2 - Russia??™s Alliance Oil Company, which manages Ukraine's third largest oil refinery Kherson NaftoPererobka, plans to invest $500 million to upgrade the refinery within the next five years and to increase exports to Europe.

KIEV, Mar. 2 ??“ Nestle, the world's largest food producer, plans to expand on Ukraine??™s confectionary market as it plans to launch a line of new chocolate products, Hennadiy Radchenko, Nestle Ukraine's corporate liaisons manager, said.

KIEV, Mar. 2 ??“ Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov confirmed Wednesday that the world??™s oil majors, including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and Royal Dutch Shell, will bid for a license to extract oil and gas offshore the Black Sea.

KIEV. March 1 - ABN Amro Bank N.V.??™s Amsterdam branch opened a $50 million credit facility to Industrial Union of Donbass (IUD), a major Ukrainian steel producer, IUD's press office said.

KIEV, March 2 ??“ From January through February Ukrainian mining and metallurgical enterprises reduced production of main types of metal products by 1-3% against the same period last year, but increased pipe output by 25%, ferroalloys by 8% and crude iron ore by 10%.

KIEV, March 2 ??“ The Industrial Union of Donbas has finished pre-contract talks with the engineering company Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (Austria) on construction of a 5.5 million ton converter workshop with capacity of Alchevsk Metallurgical Mill, IUD Chairman Serhiy Taruta told Interfax-Ukraine.

KIEV, March 2 - The government will not be reversing privatization of the country's largest alumina producer Mykolayiv Alumina Plant (MAP), which is owned by Russian aluminum group Rusal, First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh said Tuesday.

KYIV, Feb 1 – Last year was a record for the Ukrainian agrarian sector, which provided USD 24.7 billion in foreign exchange earnings - the second highest figure in the country's history.

KYIV, Feb 1 - The Business Activity Expectations Index calculated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) fell to 37.5 in January from 42.1 in December and remained below the neutral level, according to a survey of enterprises released by the NBU.

KYIV, Feb 2 - The Business Activity Expectations Index, calculated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in January fell by 7.9 percentage points (p.p.), to 37.6 after growth in December (by 2.1 p.p.) and decline in November (by 4.4 p.p.) and remained below the neutral value of 50 points, which signals the prevalence of pessimistic business expectations.