In January-September 2024, “ARX Life” Insurance Company (ARX Life, Kyiv) collected insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 251.2 million, which is 7.03% more than in the same period a year earlier.
This was reported by RA “Standard-Rating” on its website in the information on the company’s credit rating/insurer financial strength (reliability) rating update at the level of “uaAAA” on the national scale.
The volume of payments and reimbursements made by the insurer in the first half of the year decreased by 10.21% to UAH 44.382 million. Thus, the insurer’s claims ratio decreased by 3.39 percentage points to 17.67%.
The insurer’s acquisition expenses for the first three quarters of 2024 decreased by 4.99% to UAH 134.587 million compared to the same period in 2023.
Net profit amounted to UAH 60.908 million, which is 31.01% more than the net profit for 9 months of 2023.
As of October 1, 2024, the insurer’s assets increased by 24.55% to UAH 355.136 million, equity – by 28.76% to UAH 272.681 million, liabilities – by 12.41% to UAH 82.455 million, cash and cash equivalents – by 66.66% to UAH 65.756 million.
Thus, as of the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2024, the company had a high level of capitalization (330.7%), as well as the level of coverage of its liabilities by cash and cash equivalents (79.75%).
At the same time, RA notes that as of October 1, 2024, the insurer made financial investments in the amount of UAH 279.6 million. They consisted of government bonds and government bonds (89.43%) and deposits in banks (10.57%).
ARX Life is part of the international insurance holding Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. ARX Life is among the top ten companies in the life insurance market in Ukraine.
NEQSOL Holding, the owner of Ukraine’s second largest mobile operator VF Ukraine (Vodafone Ukraine), has paid UAH 3.94 billion to the state budget of Ukraine in full for the purchase of United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC, Kyiv) at a privatization tender.
“The winner of the auction paid in full for the state-owned stake in the country’s largest producer of titanium raw materials. The new owner has also undertaken important investment commitments: to invest at least UAH 400 million in the modernization of production, which will ensure the further development of the enterprise,” the SPF said in a statement on Monday.
For his part, NEQSOL Holding’s Regional Director Volodymyr Lavrenchuk noted that the international group of companies, which does business in 11 countries, is taking the steps required by law to complete the privatization process.
“As a strategic investor, we have already started negotiations with a number of specialized companies from the US, Australia, the UK and Canada to attract the best international experience to develop a new strategy for UMCC. This strategy provides for the fulfillment of privatization obligations, deep modernization and expansion in global markets,” he stressed.
The State Property Fund noted that the process of large-scale privatization continues, and on December 19, 2024, 100% of the state-owned share of the nationalized building materials producer Aerok LLC will be put up for sale at an online auction in the Prozorro.Sale electronic trading system with a starting price of UAH 965.3 million.
The SPF reminded that, including the sale of the Ukraina Hotel earlier this fall, the total amount of proceeds from large-scale privatization this year has already exceeded UAH 6.4 billion.
As reported, Cemin Ukraine LLC, controlled by NEQSOL Holding, was the only bidder for the purchase of the UMCC at the auction scheduled for October 9: it offered UAH 3 billion 938 million 351,581 thousand at the initial price of UAH 3 billion 899,358 million.
NEQSOL Holding is founded and owned by Azerbaijani citizen Nasib Hasanov. According to the holding’s website, in the 1990s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, he started providing brokerage services, initially engaged in the supply of chemicals, developed business in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and other countries of the former USSR, and then in the supply of equipment for the oil and gas industry in the region.
After that, Hasanov used the accumulated capital to invest in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan, establishing his own company in this field. The holding’s enterprises in the energy sector are consolidated into two groups: Nobel Oil E&P (UK) Limited (trading name Nobel Upstream), which is engaged in exploration and production in the UK, the US and Azerbaijan, and Nobel Energy, which provides diversified integrated services to international oil and gas operators in the Caspian region and beyond.
The holding entered the telecommunications industry in 2005 by acquiring Bakcell, the first Azerbaijani telecommunications company, and in 2019 NEQSOL Holding bought Vodafone Ukraine. The holding also invests in various startups.
In the late 2000s, the group expanded its business portfolio by making a name for itself in the construction services and materials market, producing cement and related materials. Norm, founded in 2013, is the largest cement producer in the South Caucasus. Before the war, NEQSOL Holding was close to buying Ivano-Frankivskcement, Ukraine’s largest cement producer, but later abandoned the deal.
Currently, the group employs over 12,000 people in 11 countries, including the UK, USA, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the UAE. The company’s headquarters are located in Amsterdam, Baku and Kyiv.
UMCC started its actual operations in August 2014, when the Ukrainian government decided to transfer the property complexes of Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (VGMK, Dnipropetrovska oblast) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (IGOK, Zhytomyrska oblast) to its management. Previously, these plants were leased from Dmitry Firtash’s structures.
In August 2016, the government included UMCC in the list of companies to be privatized in 2017. The privatization was postponed several times, most recently due to Covid and quarantine.
Before the war, in the second half of 2021, the SPF put UMCC up for auction three times with a starting price of UAH 3.7 billion. The last auction, scheduled for December 20, did not take place as only two bids were submitted, one of which was rejected due to non-compliance with the law. At that time, one bidder was not enough for the sale. This was preceded by a statement by the privatization adviser BDO Corporate Finance that international companies were not ready to participate in the auction due to the lack of guarantees of protection of large investments by the Cabinet of Ministers. At that time, the SPF and the advisor appealed to the government to provide such guarantees, but to no avail.
In 2023, UMCC’s revenue decreased by 15.4% to UAH 1 billion 946.68 million, and its net loss amounted to UAH 481.35 million against a net profit of UAH 13.37 million a year earlier. According to YouControl, in January-September this year, the company increased its revenue by 88.8% to UAH 2 billion 295.5 million, receiving UAH 89.1 million in net profit against UAH 274.2 million in net loss for the same period last year.
Where are drivers most often fined?
More than 3.2 million traffic violations were detected by auto-fixation cameras in 9 months of 2024, according to the Patrol Police Department.
This is 1.7 times more than in the same period last year and a record for the last 5 years. 99% of violations were related to speeding. More than 2 million more violations were recorded by police officers.
3,278,982 traffic violations were detected by auto-fixation cameras in Ukraine this year. This is 1.7 times more than in the same period last year. In total, this is a record number of violations for the entire period of operation of the autofixation cameras since June 2020. Almost all the violations recorded by the cameras concerned speeding. Only 1% – 16,833 violations – were related to stopping or driving in the public transport lane.
The highest number of violations per month was recorded this year in September – 520,247.
Currently, there are 308 auto-fixation cameras in Ukraine in 19 regions of Ukraine and the capital. 20% of all cameras are located in Kyiv (30) and the region (32). There are 44 cameras in Lviv region, 13 of which are in Lviv and 31 in the region. At the same time, in the regions close to the frontline (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions), the monitoring devices are not connected.
For comparison, on the eve of the full-scale invasion, 246 devices in 24 cities and 15 regions recorded violations.
In addition to automatic recording, police officers issued 2,088,433 traffic tickets for traffic violations. Drivers were fined most often in Lviv region: 220,161 tickets, followed by Kyiv (180,719) and Odesa (134,836).
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/autofines-2024
The national procurement agency, the state-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine (MPU), has announced additional procurement of medical products with a total expected value of UAH 1.81 billion at the expense of saved funds.
According to the website of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine, the procurement will be carried out in the areas of adult and pediatric oncology, cardiovascular diseases, adult and pediatric hemophilia, hepatitis, cystic fibrosis, and blood donation.
The Ministry of Health clarifies that as of November 13, procurements totaling UAH 1.53 billion have been announced, which is 84.5% of the expected amount.
In 2023, the Ministry of Health saved UAH 2.5 billion in procurement, of which UAH 1.635 billion was spent on additional procurement.
Metinvest Group’s Zaporizhzhia-based steel and mining enterprises, Zaporizhstal, Zaporozhogneupor, Zaporozhkoks and Zaporizhzhia Foundry and Mechanical Plant (ZLMZ), increased their payments to budgets of all levels by 35% year-on-year in January-September this year, totaling more than UAH 2.1 billion in taxes and fees.
According to the group’s press release on Friday, the most significant payments in terms of volume are the unified social tax and the single personal income tax. A significant share of deductions is also accounted for by the payment of environmental and land taxes and military fees.
“Metinvest Group’s enterprises remain among the largest taxpayers in Zaporizhzhia. In the first nine months of this year, Metinvest’s steelmakers paid almost UAH 700 million to the local budget, a quarter more than last year. Taxes are the basis of the public sector and the foundation for sustainable development of the frontline region. That is why, despite all the difficulties of wartime, our enterprises remain a reliable pillar of Zaporizhzhia,” said Taras Shevchenko, acting CEO of Zaporizhstal.
At the same time, the company’s enterprises in the region systematically implement socially important projects to reintegrate war veterans and support their families, help vulnerable groups of the population, assist in eliminating the consequences of shelling and restore destroyed infrastructure.
As reported earlier, including associates and joint ventures, Metinvest Group increased its tax payments to the Ukrainian budget by 38% to over UAH 15 billion in the first nine months of 2024. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Metinvest has allocated UAH 7.5 billion to help Ukraine and its citizens, including UAH 4 billion for the needs of the army as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative. The Group remains a reliable support for the country in its fight against the enemy.
In 2023, Metinvest’s Zaporizhzhia enterprises paid more than UAH 2.1 billion to the budgets of all levels, including more than UAH 818 million to local budgets. At the same time, under martial law, they waived tax benefits worth more than UAH 350 million in favor of the state.
Taking into account its associated companies and joint ventures, Metinvest paid UAH 14.6 billion in taxes and fees to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine in 2023. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Group has allocated UAH 4.8 billion to help Ukraine and its citizens, including more than UAH 2.5 billion for the needs of the army.
In 2022, Metinvest’s Zaporizhzhia enterprises paid about UAH 3.4 billion to budgets of all levels, including almost UAH 820 million to local budgets last year.
“Zaporizhstal is one of the largest industrial enterprises in Ukraine, whose products are widely known and in demand in the domestic market and in many countries around the world. “Zaporizhstal is in the process of being integrated into Metinvest Group, whose major shareholders are System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
How banks’ profits and taxes have changed this year
UAH 117.63 billion of profit was earned by 62 Ukrainian banks after taxes for 9 months of 2024, according to the NBU. This is 7% more than last year. Privat continues to lead the way in terms of earnings, accounting for 41% of the total profit of banks. MTB Bank showed the best growth – 13 times over the year.
Ukrainian banks earned UAH 117.63 billion in profit, net of taxes, in the first 9 months of 2024. Despite the tax rate that increased from 18% to 25% this year, this is 7% more than last year: UAH 109.85 billion.
63% of the profit among all financial institutions went to state-owned banks. This is mainly due to the earnings of PrivatBank: UAH 48.35 billion or 41% of the total profit of all banks. Over the year, Privat’s profit grew by 11%.
In September, another Ukrainian bank became state-owned, Motor Bank. Currently, 2 out of 7 state-owned banks are unprofitable
Banks with foreign capital accounted for 23% of the total profit – UAH 27.32 billion. Only 1 out of 14 foreign banks currently suffered losses of UAH 139.57 million – Pravex Bank.
Raiffeisen remains the leader in the group: UAH 6.15 billion of profit (the same as in the same period last year).
Private banks made UAH 16.25 billion in profit. Their profits increased by 22% over the year. FUIB accounted for one third of the group’s earnings – UAH 5.18 billion. Over the year, the bank’s profit decreased by 9%.
MTB Bank had the largest increase in profit among all banks: by 13 times, up to UAH 603.59 million.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/banks-2024-9
