Eurohold Bulgaria, represented in Ukraine by two insurance companies – “Euroins Ukraine” and “European Travel Insurance” – in January-September 2024 received a gross profit of EUR181.74 mln, which is 0.8% more than in the same period a year earlier. As reported in the information of IC “Euroins Ukraine” profit before interest taxes and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to EUR122.77 million, which is 36.6% higher than in the same period of 2023. The net financial result for the reporting period amounted to EUR16.21m. The group’s consolidated revenue amounted to around EUR1.02bn.
Eurohold’s insurance business, carried out through Euroins Insurance Group AD (EIG), showed growth and improved profitability. In the first nine months of this year, the group’s insurance revenues grew by 4% year-on-year to EUR198m, while EBITDA and the final financial result amounted to EUR8.44m and EUR1.87m.
“The segments and markets where we are active face challenges, but our results show that we are capable of overcoming them. I believe that we will conclude this year successfully, creating additional value for our shareholders and all our stakeholders,” said Eurohold CEO Assen Minchev,.
Eurohold Bulgaria is a leading energy and financial group operating in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It is listed on the Bulgarian and Warsaw Stock Exchanges.
Eurohold owns Euroinsurance Group (EIG), one of the largest insurance groups in the region. EIG provides a full range of insurance products, serves more than 4 million clients in 11 countries and employs more than 3000 people.
IC “Euroins Ukraine” is a universal non-life insurer, operating in the Ukrainian market since 1992. The company has about 100 representative offices all over the country, holds 25 licenses, 16 of them – for voluntary and 9 – for compulsory types of insurance.
IC “European Travel Insurance” has been working in the Ukrainian market since 2006 and is the only insurer in Ukraine, which specializes in travel insurance.
The company holds 8 licenses for voluntary types of insurance, works with both private individuals and corporate clients.
Representatives of the Government of Serbia, the City of Belgrade and PowerChina today signed an agreement for the construction of the first phase of the Belgrade Metro Line 1 worth EUR 720 million.
The agreement for Lot 2 of the first phase of Line 1 of the Belgrade Metro covers the design and execution of works, including preparatory activities and the procurement of TBM machines for tunneling.
The preparatory and construction work is expected to last 45 months plus two years.
The document was signed in the Serbian government building by Minister of Public Investment Darko Glisic, Acting Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure; Acting Deputy Head of the Belgrade City Administration – Secretary of the Public Transport Secretariat Radovan Kremić; Director of the Belgrade Metro and Train Company Andrej Mladenović, together with a representative of the Chinese company Power China Han Jiping.
As noted, the new agreement makes it possible to allocate a separate Lot 2, which will be financed from the Serbian budget and will enter into force immediately, which will facilitate the faster implementation of the construction of the first phase of Line 1 of the Belgrade Metro.
In January-November 2024, 73.4 million tons of cargo were exported through the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Timur Tkachenko said on Facebook on Wednesday.
According to him, the volume of exports since the start of the sea corridor in September 2023 has reached 85 million tons.
In addition, the total volume of cargo handled in Ukrainian ports in January-November reached 91.1 million tons, compared to 52.8 million tons in the same period in 2023.
Grain crops remain the leaders in terms of transshipment volumes: 56.1 million tons were handled in 11 months, which is significantly higher than last year’s figure of 39.4 million tons. The volume of ore cargo increased to 16.7 million tons, up from 3.2 million tons in 2023.
In November, Ukraine’s seaports handled 7.6 million tons of cargo, up from 6.7 million tons last year.
“Ukrainian seaports remain key points in international logistics, proving their ability to adapt to challenges and ensure stability even in the most difficult conditions,” Tkachenko wrote, noting that thanks to well-coordinated work, international support and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukraine continues to maintain its position in the global transportation market and confirm its status as a reliable partner.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority reported that the cargo turnover of Ukrainian ports from January 1 to November 17, 2024 increased to 86.8 million tons, of which 53.5 million tons were grain cargo.
In addition, it was reported that during the first year of operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, 64.4 million tons of cargo were transported, including 43.5 million tons of grain. During this period, 2379 vessels used the corridor, exporting products to 46 countries.
Germany’s economy shows no signs of recovery: The country’s GDP will decline again in 2024, and stagnation is expected in 2025, according to a review by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).
Experts expect Germany’s GDP to decline by 0.2% this year. The decline will be marked for the second year in a row – in 2023, the German economy shrank by 0.3%. In 2025, Germany’s GDP growth will be zero, analysts predict.
The autumn forecast predicted that the country’s GDP would decline by 0.1% in 2024 and grow by 0.5% in 2025.
The main reasons for the deterioration of the forecasts are the expected introduction of US tariffs and the deepening crisis in the German industry, IfW experts say.
“The crisis is largely a crisis of the manufacturing sector,” said Stefan Koots, head of the IfW’s economic forecasting department. – “It shows symptoms typical of the periods following major macro shocks.
“The German economy is struggling with a decline in competitiveness, which is reflected in the weakness of overall economic indicators, which hardly allow us to count on any upward impulses,” the expert added.
The growth rate of consumer prices in Germany will reach the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target of 2% only by the end of 2026, not 2025, as expected in the Institute’s previous forecast. The average inflation rate in 2024 and 2025 will be 2.2%, according to IfW.
Unemployment in Germany will be at 6% this year and 6.3% in 2025 and 2026, according to the IfW. This is worse than the fall forecast of 6.1% for 2025 and 5.9% for 2026.
Experts assume that Germany will be able to reduce the budget deficit from 2.6% of GDP in 2023 to 2.3% this year and 1.9% in 2025. In 2026, the budget deficit is projected at 2.1% of GDP. In the fall, IfW expected the budget deficit to be 1.7% in 2025 and 2026.
You can learn more about current trends in the global economy in the video analysis by Maksym Urakin and the Experts Cub think tank on the Experts Club YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grE5wjPaItI
Imports of refrigerators, freezers and heat pumps to Ukraine in January-November this year increased by 21.3% in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2023, to $251.59 million, according to statistics from the State Customs Service.
According to the agency’s statistics, refrigeration and freezing equipment was imported mainly from China (32.3% of imports, or $81.3 million), Poland (23.7%, or $59.7 million) and Turkey (12.3%, or $30.8 million), while a year earlier, most of such equipment was imported from Poland (28%), followed by China (21%) and Turkey (15.2%).
At the same time, in November, imports of refrigeration and freezing equipment decreased by 5% to $17.3 million compared to November 2023.
Meanwhile, in January-November, Ukraine increased exports of such equipment by 56.7% to $68.05 million, in particular, exports to Poland increased 6.6 times to $13.52 million (almost 20% of exports of this equipment), to Kazakhstan – by 21.2% to $13.37 (19.7%), to Uzbekistan more than tripled to $7.53 million (11%).
For a long time, Ukraine’s largest producer of household refrigerators and freezers was the Nord plant in Donetsk, which was forced to shut down in 2016 due to the war and moved its refrigerator production to China.
On the distribution company’s website, the last message about the sale of equipment in the online store is dated June 2020.
In addition, KTD Group, which produces household appliances in Ukraine under the Saturn, ST, and Laretti brands, announced in February 2019 that it would launch a trial production of household refrigerators at a new plant in Cherkasy, but nothing has been known about this project since then.
In addition, the UBC Group, a commercial and industrial holding company with plants in Kharkiv and Vinnytsia, operates in the B2B refrigeration segment in Ukraine.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and global insurance and reinsurance broker Aon have announced the launch of a specialized program aimed at restoring the activity of the military risk insurance market in Ukraine, under which the EBRD provides guarantees of EUR 110 million.
“The Bank’s partnership with Aon will help to restore the activity of international reinsurance companies in the Ukrainian military insurance market. The Bank’s new guarantee will improve the access of private sector insurance companies to reinsurance, which will lead to overcoming the current challenges caused by the war,” the EBRD said in a press release on Thursday.
According to it, the program will involve the international reinsurance company MS Amlin and Ukrainian insurance companies INGO, Colonnade and UNIQA. It is specified that the initiative is supported by donors, including France, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Taiwan-Business-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund.
Under a new EUR110 million guarantee program for Ukraine’s recovery, the EBRD will provide international reinsurance companies with a guarantee to cover certain war-related risks insured by Ukrainian insurance companies. The program will utilize existing market infrastructure and proven insurance industry mechanisms to provide the protection required by private sector investors, the release said.
It is stated that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to a significant restriction of access to reinsurance services, as international companies have largely ceased to operate in the Ukrainian market. This, in turn, has significantly limited the ability of Ukrainian insurance companies to offer commercial insurance products against military risks.
It is emphasized that the new program is the first program of its kind and will operate as an open platform through which various insurance market participants will be able to access the guarantee. Global specialized reinsurance company MS Amlin is the first international partner in this market to join the bank’s program. Thanks to this program, this British company will be able to reduce the amount of relevant liabilities on its balance sheet, which will allow it to resume active cooperation with Ukrainian insurance companies to provide much-needed insurance for military risks.
It is specified that at the initial stage, the program will cover insurance of land freight transportation, damage to vehicles and railway rolling stock. In the future, it may be expanded to cover other types of property, taking into account market needs.
Given that such policies are typically short-term, the program is designed to reuse capital to achieve aggregate coverage that will exceed the guarantee amount many times over, depending on the actual number of policies sold and the frequency of claims, the EBRD said.
“According to preliminary estimates, based on this approach, the bank’s guarantee can provide insurance coverage totaling up to EUR1 billion of goods and vehicles per year, which will have a significant economic impact,” the EBRD predicts.
It is also noted that the European Union and Switzerland have promised additional donor support. According to the release, the EBRD and Aon worked in close coordination with the Ministry of Economy and the National Bank of Ukraine to prepare the program, in particular to ensure complementarity between the new initiative and other programs offered by other international organizations and the Ukrainian government, with the aim of expanding war risk insurance for Ukrainian companies and strengthening the Ukrainian economy.
