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.
Sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine in July increased by 11% compared to the same month last year, reaching 6,700 units, which is also 8% more than in June 2025, according to Auto-Consulting.
Analysts note that sales in July could have been even higher, but this was hampered by difficulties with car registration in the last days of the month.
“But despite these obstacles, the results for July were very encouraging, as the car market has already moved into positive territory for the first seven months of the year, with growth of +0.84%,” the report said.
Auto-Consulting notes interesting changes among brands. Toyota retained first place, with sales up 3.5% to 918 units in June this year.
“For the first time in history, BYD took second place in the Ukrainian market, overtaking three competitors and pushing VW out of this position. BYD was preferred by 11% of Ukrainian consumers, which is a record among Chinese cars, and the BYD Song model also took second place among the most popular models,” Auto-Consulting reports.
Analysts note that neither Skoda nor Renault could withstand BYD’s relentless pressure, and most importantly, Volkswagen took three steps back, whose high performance is also maintained thanks to electric vehicle deliveries from China.
They also note the growing popularity of Honda, which moved up to sixth place from eighth in June with a 21.4% increase in sales to 323 units.
“BMW and Audi (8th and 9th place) slightly improved their positions, while another phenomenon of this year, Zeekr, lost some ground but remained in the top 10 of the Ukrainian car market,” the report says.
At the same time, analysts express surprise at the decline of Mercedes-Benz, which in July, as in June, ranked only 16th in the rating.
“Mercedes-Benz is no longer leading the premium car ranking in the Ukrainian market, nor is it even among the top three in the premium segment (BMW, Audi, Lexus),” analysts note.
Auto-Consulting believes that the trends observed in the car market in terms of brand positioning will continue until the end of the electric vehicle incentives, “and then it will be time for other forces to come into play.”
In turn, the Ukravtoprom association reported on Telegram that last month Ukrainians purchased more than 6,400 new passenger cars, 1% more than in July last year and 7% more than in June this year.
According to the association, the leading brand Toyota reduced its sales by 20% to July 2024, to 820 units, while BYD is rapidly catching up, improving last year’s result by 3.2 times, to 744 units, and jumping to second place in the ranking from ninth last year.
The top ten also includes Renault with 654 units (+11%); Skoda with 559 units (+48%); Volkswagen with 491 units (+47%); Honda with 319 units (+9%); Hyundai with 298 units (+32%); BMW with 263 units (-58%); Audi with 253 units (+20%); and Zeekr with 191 units (+125%).
“Since the beginning of the year, about 39,300 new passenger cars have been registered in the country, which is only 0.1% more than last year,” Ukravtoprom reports.
As reported, according to AUTO-Consulting, in 2024, sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine will grow by 9.8% compared to 2023, to 71,300 units, and according to Ukravtoprom, initial registrations will increase by 14%, to 69,600 units.
Representatives of the tourism sector paid UAH 1 billion 613 million in taxes to the state budget in January–June 2025, which is 29% more than in the same period of 2024, according to the press service of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine.
According to the head of the State Agency for Tourism Development, Natalia Tabaka, in addition to inflationary factors, the growth is explained by the revival of domestic tourism. In particular, the number of taxpayers is also growing: as of the first half of 2025, the number of registered business entities operating in the tourism sector exceeded 14,500, which is 5% more than in the same period last year.
Hotels remain among the leading taxpayers, accounting for 71% of total revenue, or UAH 1.144 billion. For comparison, in 2024, this amount was UAH 809 million, in 2023 – UAH 570 million, and in pre-war 2021 – UAH 665 million.
Tour operators paid almost UAH 195 million in the first half of this year (UAH 165 million in the first half of 2024 and UAH 88 million in 2023).
Travel agencies paid UAH 153 million in the first half of the year, which is 49% more than in the same period of 2024.
Recreation centers and children’s camps paid more than UAH 92 million, 18% more than last year.
As for the tourist tax, local budgets received more than UAH 142.5 million in the first half of 2025, which is 34% more than in the same period last year. The number of tourist tax payers also increased: from 4,945 in the second quarter of 2024 to 5,717 in the second quarter of 2025.
The top five regions in terms of tourist tax revenue are Kyiv (UAH 33.6 million), Lviv region (UAH 26.5 million), Ivano-Frankivsk region (over UAH 22 million), Zakarpattia region (almost UAH 12 million), and Kyiv region (UAH 7.5 million).
Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s leading express delivery company, increased its unconsolidated net profit by 2.6% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 905.45 million.
According to the company’s reports on its website and in the NSSMC’s information disclosure system, revenue in the second quarter grew by 22.9% to UAH 12 billion 712.14 million.
In total, in the first half of this year, Nova Poshta’s net profit decreased by 19.6% to UAH 1 billion 195.74 million, while revenue increased by 22.1% to UAH 24 billion 571.27 million.
It is noted that gross profit for the first half of the year increased by 30.8% to UAH 5 billion 55.3 million, while operating profit increased by 45.6% to UAH 2 billion 443.82 million.
The lower net profit is due to the fact that in January-June last year, Nova Poshta received UAH 1 billion 340.82 million in other financial income, while in the same period this year, it received UAH 341.15 million, but at the same time increased its income tax payments to UAH 227.01 million from UAH 83.43 million.
The report also states that at the end of May, the company decided to issue a new four-year series H bond issue for UAH 1 billion with a nominal yield of 16% in the first year and UIRD+3 percentage points in the following three years.
As of mid-2019, Nova Poshta had obligations under three bond issues of series “E,” “F” and “G” for UAH 995.82 million maturing on July 30 this year, UAH 998.45 million maturing on June 1 next year, and UAH 999.38 million maturing on May 2, 2027.
The company’s bank liabilities as of the middle of this year decreased to UAH 6 billion 388.72 million from UAH 6 billion 635.01 million a quarter earlier.
The main activity of Nova Poshta is express delivery of documents, parcels, and palletized large-size cargo. The company is the leader in express delivery in Ukraine. Its ultimate beneficial owners are Volodymyr Poperechnyuk and Vyacheslav Klimov.
PJSC Zaporizhkox, one of Ukraine’s largest producers of coke and chemical products and part of the Metinvest Group, increased its production of blast furnace coke by 0.6% in January-July this year compared to the same period last year, from 509,600 tons to 512,900 tons.
According to the company, 78.9 thousand tons of coke were produced in July, compared to 76.3 thousand tons in the previous month.
As reported, in 2024, Zaporizhkox increased its production of blast furnace coke by 2.1% compared to 2023, to 874.7 thousand tons from 856.8 thousand tons.
In 2023, Zaporizhkox increased its production of blast furnace coke by 16% compared to 2022, to 856,800 tons from 737,400 tons.
Zaporizhkox has a complete technological cycle for the processing of coke and chemical products.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its main shareholders are the SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of the Metinvest Group.
Agroholding KSG Agro has completed the harvest of spring barley and wheat from an area of 7,604 thousand hectares, of which 6,428 thousand hectares were allocated for wheat and 1,176 thousand hectares for spring barley, the press service of the agroholding reported.
“This year’s summer harvest in our Dnipro region was difficult. Weather conditions, including the effects of last year’s drought, took their toll. (…) We plan to use the harvested grain as ingredients for mixed feed for our pig farm. Part of it will be sold under export contracts,” said Sergey Kasyanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KSG Agro.
The agricultural holding specified that during the summer harvest, 18 John Deere and Claas Lexion combine harvesters and 60 trucks were used on KSG Agro’s fields.
KSG Agro is a vertically integrated holding company engaged in pig farming, as well as the production, storage, processing, and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions is about 21,000 hectares.
According to KSG Agro, it is one of the top five pork producers in Ukraine.
In 2023, the agricultural holding began implementing a network-centric strategy, under which it will move from developing a large location to a number of smaller pig farms located in different regions of Ukraine.
