Insurance company Krona (Kyiv) in 2020 collected UAH 117.5 million of insurance premiums, which is 58.35% more than in the same period a year earlier, the rating agency Expert-Rating reported in materials about updating the company’s financial strength rating on the national scale at the level “uaAA-“. According to its data, part of insurance premiums belonging to reinsurers increased by 85.80%, and their share in the structure of gross premiums by 5.20 percentage points, to 35.23%.
The volume of insurance payments and compensations made by the company in 2020 amounted to UAH 34.530 million, which is 18.55% higher than the volume of payments in 2019. At the same time, the level of payments for the year was 29.38%.
The equity capital of Krona for 2020 increased by 24.44%, to UAH 54.110 million, gross liabilities – by 45.59%, up to UAH 29 million. The volume of cash and cash equivalents increased by 19.10%, to UAH 16.160 million. At the same time, taking into account the high growth rates of gross liabilities, the cash coverage of the insurer’s liabilities decreased by 12.39 percentage points and as of the end of 2020 amounted to 55.74%.
The formed current financial investments of the insurer amounted to UAH 3.830 million. They consisted of deposits in banks with investment grade of credit ratings (49.06% of the investment portfolio) and with government bonds (50.94% of the portfolio).
Over 2020, the insurer’s operating profit amounted to UAH 3.030 million, which was 26% less than in 2019. Net profit increased to UAH 870,000.
According to the statements, as of December 31, 2020, the company complied with the criteria and standards established by law for solvency and capital adequacy, liquidity, profitability, asset quality and the riskiness of operations.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic in Ukraine is starting to decline, the situation in many regions is stabilizing, Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov said.
“We have withstood another jump in the incidence of COVID-19, and gradually the situation started to improve. Now in many regions the situation is stabilizing. We have been observing a decline in incidence in Ukraine within ten days,” he wrote on the Facebook page on Wednesday.
Stepanov said that on the eve of Tuesday, April 13, “was the first day when the number of people discharged from hospitals exceeded the number of hospitalized people by 22.8%.”
He also said that 2,000 fewer patients were admitted to hospitals last week than a week earlier, and several regions, in particular Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia, left the “red” zone.
At the same time, Stepanov said “some regions, in particular the city of Kyiv, as well as Kyiv, Lviv and Poltava regions, continue to be in the ‘red’ zone of increased epidemic danger and the situation there remains extremely difficult.”
“It is very important to continue adhering to the established restrictions and anti-epidemic measures: wearing masks, using antiseptics, avoiding crowds of people,” the minister said.
In 2020, the Business Ombudsman Council (BOC) received 1,193 complaints about work of the State Tax Service, State Customs Service and State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, which is 120 complaints more than in 2019, and a total of 1,737 complaints were received during the year, which is 91 more than a year ago.
“In 2020, the Business Ombudsman Council received 1737 complaints and completed the investigation of 1159 cases, which is 9% and 2% more than in 2019 respectively,” BOC said in its annual report published on Wednesday.
In total, four subjects of appeals accounted for 85% of business complaints about violations of state bodies: tax issues (64%), actions of law enforcement agencies (12%), actions of state regulators (5%) and customs issues (4%), according to the report.
“Despite the moratorium on most tax audits and reduction of complaints on this subject, the number of business appeals on tax issues increased by 14% in comparison with 2019 (from 981 to 1117 appeals). In particular, the number of complaints about tax invoices suspension tripled (from 95 to 273), by 63% on inclusion in risky taxpayers’ lists (from 127 to 207), by 36% – on non-enforcement of court decisions on tax invoices registration (from 108 to 147),” BOC said.
Complaints were predominantly lodged by Ukrainian companies (89%), mostly small and medium-sized businesses (76%). Traditionally, the most active in terms of the number of complaints were wholesalers (26%), manufacturing (12%), agribusiness (12%), real estate (11%) and individual entrepreneurs (10%) representatives.
In 2020, with the adoption of respective laws and regulations, the following were implemented: a mechanism to inform the company of the reasons for inclusion in the risky taxpayers lists and ways to be removed therefrom was introduced; regular work of the Expert Council on preparation of generalized tax consultations was resumed; renewal of electronic VAT administration system indicators for taxpayers, whose registration was canceled and subsequently renewed, was provided.
Business Ombudsman Marcin Święcicki said that BOC is waiting for a new version of the bill on the business ombudsman.
“A new version of the draft law on the Business Ombudsman Institution, which takes into account all the key comments of MPs and stakeholders, is awaiting registration in the Verkhovna Rada. The law should stabilize the BOC activities, regulate its cooperation with complainants and state bodies, as well as clearly define the rights and responsibilities of the institution,” the press service said, citing Święcicki.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga and invited him to Kiev to celebrate the Independence Day of Ukraine.
“Glad to talk to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Grateful to Japan for supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The support of G7 & in particular Japan, one of our key partners, is crucial. I’ll be glad to see you in Kyiv at the celebration of Ukraine’s IndependenceDay & at the Crimean Platform summit,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament) adopted at first reading bill No. 5308, which proposes the issue of securities for UAH 20 billion for the implementation of the Affordable Mortgage president’s program.
The bill in the first reading was supported by 263 MPs. “The bill provides that the Ministry of Finance shall issue government domestic loan bonds… with the subsequent acquisition of shares in state ownership in exchange for the shares of the additional issue of Ukrainian Financial Housing Company to provide citizens with housing and resolve issues of financial and economic activities of the company in connection with the accession to the State Mortgage Institution,” one of the authors of the bill, a member of the Rada budget committee Lesia Zaburanna said from the rostrum of parliament.
Currently, the activities of the State Mortgage Institution are unprofitable, she added.
According to the lawmaker, the adoption of this bill will allow continuing the implementation of existing state programs and will allow in the short term providing about 8,000 mortgage loans for the purchase of housing. It would be possible to buy 12,000 apartments for subsequent transfer to financial leasing.
The Agrofusion Group of Companies (Mykolaiv) will expand the total growing area for tomatoes by 4% compared to last year, to 8,360 hectares, according to a posting on the website of the agricultural producer.
In addition, in the new production season, 0.1 thousand hectares have been allocated for organic tomatoes.
Agrofusion said that Agrofusion team has begun new tomato paste growing season. In the last decade of March we have started to sow tomato seeds at both Southern and Northern greenhouse complexes. This year our nurseries will grow more than 200 million transplants for the production of tomato paste presented in many countries under the TM Inagro.
According to the company’s website, Agrofusion is a vertically integrated group of companies in Ukraine that grows and processes tomatoes for producers of juices, ketchups and tomato sauces. It includes 10 branches, two greenhouses, three plants for the production of tomato paste (two in Mykolaiv region, one in Kherson region) with a total capacity of up to 750,000 tonnes of tomatoes per season. The total land bank of agricultural enterprises in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions is more than 32,000 hectares of irrigated land.
According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which provided EUR 10 million to the group of companies in September 2020 to finance working capital needs, Agrofusion is the third largest tomato company in Europe, exporting 72% of its products to 45 countries.
