Thanks to the creation of a marketplace with government bonds and more than 30 other instruments, as well as educational and advertising efforts, the Univer investment group opens about a thousand new securities accounts for clients every month, according to the group’s founder and president, Taras Kozak.
“I think that thanks to all our efforts, educational and promotional, we are now the leader in terms of the number of accounts opened: somewhere around a thousand new accounts per month,” he said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According to Kozak, the company currently has about 20,000 clients.
According to the Financial Market Contract Servicing Center (FMSC), as of August 1, there were 211,160 unique investors registered, with their number increasing by 13,370 since the beginning of this year.
“I cannot say exactly how much money, but it is many billions of hryvnia that have been invested in various financial instruments,” the investment banker added.
He specified that NovaPay is currently the largest partner, having introduced an alternative to deposits through repo transactions with its own bonds, which are administered by Univer.
At the same time, according to Kozak, in addition to NovaPay, the investment group offers its clients the largest selection of securities in Ukraine through its own app: in addition to 10 series of OVGZ, there are more than 30 other instruments.
“We are creating a marketplace where Ukrainians can buy OVGZ, funds, corporate bonds, and foreign securities that were introduced in Ukraine before the war, all in one place. When our clients want to sell, we list them in the cabinet, and our other clients buy them,” explained the president of Univer.
He emphasized that the investment group only allows instruments in which it is prepared to invest a portion of its portfolios to be listed in the cabinet.
According to him, Univer offers investors the opportunity to purchase securities from its own funds (Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Taras Shevchenko, which invest in Ukraine;
Yaroslav Mudry and Ataman, which invested in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices before the war, but now their investments are limited), as well as real estate and land funds.
As examples of real estate funds, he cited Andriy Zhurzhiy’s Inzhura funds and two Standard One funds, which are buying apartments in large income-generating buildings under construction near VDNH (S1 VDNH) and in Obolon (S1 Obolon). Kozak clarified that at the same time, the investment group does not engage in construction financing funds on principle.
“The third type of funds are land funds: Tvoe Kolo, Gruntovno, and the First Ukrainian Agrarian Fund. They purchase land on their balance sheet and then lease it out. The funds receive some dividends from rent payments, but the client is mainly interested in buying a piece of land for a small check of 100-200 thousand hryvnia,” the investment banker described the land funds.
He reminded that Univer’s own funds are open, while real estate and land funds are qualified with a minimum contribution requirement of 122,000 hryvnia.
Kozak noted that the investment group does not yet plan to create its own real estate and land funds, but is focused solely on managing its own funds, which invest in securities. At the same time, he pointed out that securities from competitors will be added to marketplaces and funds to expand the offering.
In his opinion, the benefit for the client is the convenience of having all reporting and financial instruments in one place to effectively manage them and transfer money from one asset to another.
Among other areas of activity of Univer, Kozak highlighted the registration or assistance in the creation of new financial instruments: bonds, funds, and a number of other instruments.
“In the case of bonds, we are probably the largest underwriter at the moment,” said the company’s CEO. As an example, he cited the issue of bonds backed by Novus for UAH 400 million and bonds of fintech company Activitis for UAH 300 million.
In addition, the asset management company Univer Management, which is part of the group, offers venture fund management for third-party businesses that are structured in this way, Kozak said.
“At times when there is no market, and such times are very common for us, unfortunately — in 2014, 2020, and 2022 — this allows us to survive,” he noted.
