KIEV, March 26 - Ukraine's Finance Ministry plans to place foreign currency bonds with a put option on the domestic market in April, the ministry's head of debt and international financial policy, Halyna Pakhachuk, said at an international treasury conference in Kiev organized by Top Dialog.

"We will soon offer the market medium-term paper in foreign currency with early redemption. Along with the coupon, which will be three- or six-month, we are planning to offer the right to tender for redemption," Pakhachuk said, adding that the duration of the bonds would be one to three years.

KIEV, March 24 -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the long-term local currency and senior unsecured foreign currency debt rating of Bank Finance and Credit (F&C) to Caa2 from B1, and foreign currency bank deposit ratings to Caa2 from B2.

KIEV, March 24 – Shareholders in Kiev-based Finance&Credit Bank at a general meeting held on March 24 decided to transfer a 50%+1 share stake in the bank to the state and investors.

PRAGUE, March 26 - Energy holding New World Resources (NWR), Central Europe's sole listed coal miner, announced Wednesday it will not go ahead with the proposed acquisition of a 24.99% stake in Ukrainian iron ore and pellet producer Ferrexpo.

KIEV, March 26 – The retaining of present tariffs for vehicle owner civil liability to third parties insurance, also known as OSAGO, could adversely affect the insurance market in three or four months, the president of ASKA insurance company, Oleksandr Sosis, said on Wednesday.

KIEV, March 26 – The size and the pace of the cut in import duties on grape juice and wine, as proposed by the government in the light of Ukraine's joining the World Trade Organization, could lead to a slump in domestic wine growing, according to representatives of the sector.

KIEV, March 26 – State direct and guaranteed debt in February grew by 1.9%, or $335 million, to $17.8 billion, according to the Finance Ministry.

The ministry said that since the start of the year, the state debt in hryvnias grew by UAH1.3 billion (1.5%) and in dollars by $260 million.

KIEV, March 26 – The National Nuclear Power Generation Company EnergoAtom and the U.S. company Westinghouse will sign a contract on supplies of nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants on March 30, Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

KIEV, March 26 - Average profit margins in Ukraine's steel industry will drop by more than half in 2008, to 6.5% from 14.75% last year due to higher prices for raw materials, energy and transportation, Vasyl Kharakhulakh, head of industry association Metallurgprom, forecasts.

KIEV, March 26 – Ihor Kolomoyskiy, the third-richest Ukrainian, has started talks seeking to buy a 50% stake in RosUkrEnergo, a controversial Swiss-based supplier of natural gas to Ukraine, an online newspaper reported Wednesday.