TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) in January-August 2022 paid UAH 589.22 million as compensation, which is 19.3% less than in the same period a year earlier (UAH 730.58 million), according to the company’s website.
At the same time, it is noted that 27.1% of the total insurer’s payments fall on KASKO (UAH 159.66 million), 40.19% – on OSAGO (UAH 236.81 million), 14.97% – on Green Card (UAH 88.21 million).
Voluntary medical insurance accounted for 13.34% of all payments, or UAH 8.61 million.
At the same time, under property insurance agreements, TAS paid UAH 5.42 million for the specified period, which is 5.6% more than a year ago.
The volumes of payments under other insurance contracts also increased by 20.9%: in January-August of this year, TAS paid a total of UAH 20.51 million on them.
TAS was registered in 1998. It is a universal company offering customers over 80 types of insurance products for various types of voluntary and compulsory insurance. It has an extensive regional network: 28 regional directorates and branches and 450 sales offices throughout Ukraine.
Busin Insurance Company (Kyiv) has resumed the operation of the largest obligatory aviation liability reinsurance contract on the Ukrainian insurance market with a limit of $550 million and an obligatory reinsurance contract for aviation CASCO with a capacity of $6 million, according to the website of the insurer.
It is also noted that the well-known syndicates of Lloyds and the world’s leading companies with a high rating of financial reliability are involved in reinsurance contracts. The obligatory program fully applies to retrocession risks, which guarantees prompt consideration of proposals and reliable coverage of risks from reinsurance partners.
SK “Busin” was registered in February 1993. Specializes in risk types of insurance. He is a member of a number of professional and industry associations: the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, the National Insurance Claims Club, the International Association of Aviation Insurers (UA), the Nuclear Insurance Pool, the American Chamber in Ukraine, the British Business Club.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and Mayor of Barcelona Ada Kolou have signed an agreement on twinning between the cities, the press service of the mayor of the capital of Ukraine reports.
“Today, cooperation at the city level is very important, because it is cities that play a key role in the development of states and deepening cooperation between them. The capital of Ukraine develops cooperation with European cities. Attracts help from partners, convinces them of the need for further support for Ukraine. We must be strong Together! Ukraine’s victory in the war against the Russian barbarians is a guarantee of peace and tranquility throughout Europe. We are grateful to our friends who help. Barcelona gave Ukraine fire trucks, humanitarian aid, and provided temporary shelter to Ukrainians fleeing the war,” Klitschko said.
Kolow, in turn, stressed that Barcelona will continue to help and support Kyiv and Ukraine. In particular, the mayors also discussed cooperation in the field of public transport, ecology, smart city and culture.
It is noted that Barcelona has become the seventh European city with which Kyiv has signed twinning since the beginning of the large-scale aggression of the Russian Federation. In particular, Madrid, Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Oslo and Hamburg also became twin cities of the Ukrainian capital. In total, the capital of Ukraine has 63 sister cities.
Enterprises of the State Agency for Forest Resources of Ukraine (Goslesagency) will soon purchase a batch of powerful industrial wood splitters, with the help of which they will massively harvest firewood, which, under the conditions of Russian aggression, has become one of the components of the country’s energy security and a commercially attractive product.
In addition, it is planned to borrow the European model for harvesting and drying firewood. This will allow to bring the moisture content of products to the optimum and guarantee maximum heat transfer during their combustion, said the head of the agency, Yuri Bolokhovets.
“The European consumer buys mostly ready-to-use firewood. We in Ukraine today sell most of the firewood in the forest” from under the saw. demand is uneven, because in the spring, when it is best to create stocks for next winter, demand, on the contrary, drops to almost zero,” the head of the State Forest Agency said on Facebook on Friday.
According to him, it is possible to solve the issue of cyclical harvesting of firewood by investing in equipment for processing and drying firewood. This will allow enterprises of the State Forest Agency to enter the market with already chopped firewood of the appropriate moisture content. In addition, forestries need to attract funding in order to have working capital for uniform harvesting and processing of firewood throughout the year, not focusing only on the factor of seasonal demand. At the same time, firewood should be sold mainly from warehouses, where the wood acquires the required moisture during storage.
Bolohovets stressed that the existing problem of distributing wood fuel between regions can be solved by switching to the preparation of firewood according to European standards: it is economically justified to transport only completely ready-to-use firewood to other regions of Ukraine.
“We have already begun to move in this direction. The enterprises of the State Forest Agency will soon purchase a batch of powerful industrial wood splitters. At the same time, I have high hopes for our new state enterprise Forests of Ukraine. investments and introduce uniform corporate standards,” the head of the department summed up.
As reported, Ukraine is starting a reform of the state forestry industry, in which all 158 forestry enterprises of the country are united into a single specialized state enterprise Forests of Ukraine. The existing 24 regional administrations will be enlarged to nine regional administrations of forestry and hunting.
The creation of such an enterprise for the management of forestry enterprises is provided for by the State Strategy for Forest Management of Ukraine until 2035. Goslesagenstvo emphasizes: a single company with centralized management is more manageable both during martial law and during the post-war recovery of the country’s economy.
Alfa-Bank Ukraine’s additional capitalization by $1 billion at the expense of shareholders who fell under European sanctions is proposed to be carried out in the form of a “perpetual subord” (subordinated loan), Roman, head of the bank’s supervisory board, said.
“There was no ‘perpetual subord’ instrument in the country. This money is in the form of an eternal debt that is never repaid, interest can be paid on it, but this is a subord that goes into Tier 1 capital,” he said in an interview with Interfax- Ukraine”.
“There is no other tool. Firstly, war, and secondly, because of sanctions, we cannot enter the markets,” Shpek said.
The head of the Supervisory Board found it difficult to predict in what terms the necessary permission from European regulators could be obtained in practice and additional capitalization could be carried out in practice.
“Because this is the first time this path has been taken, no one knows how long it will take,” he explained.
According to Shpek, if this happens in half a year, then it will be “normal”, while such terms as a year are not considered.
He clarified that at present the bank’s appeal with the necessary confirmations from Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven is in the working body in the legal directorate of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, which deals with sanctions issues.
“Now we plan to hold working meetings at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, when they are ready to talk to us, in those authorized bodies of the Council of the European Union,” added the head of the Supervisory Board.
He clarified that since the funds are in the accounts of a British bank, but in a branch in the EU, the decision to lift sanctions for $ 1 billion for additional capitalization of the bank is made in the EU.
“If it were in the UK or the United States of America, the procedure would be simpler. Since in the EU, decisions must be made by representatives of all member countries. In addition, the US has a precedent for adjusting sanctions, while the EU does not,” Shpek said.
The bank is currently operationally profitable and has sufficient liquidity, he said, and its losses are caused by the need to create reserves for loans, the quality of which has deteriorated due to Russian aggression.
Speaking about the alternative of finding an investor, the head of the Supervisory Board stressed that he does not see anyone who is ready to come to Ukraine during the hostilities. “There are no volunteers! Banks today are reducing their portfolios, working through restructuring in order to support the client, and there are not so many new projects. How to evaluate and accept risks?” he explained.
At the same time, according to Shpek, there are constant conversations with those who are interested in working on the Ukrainian financial market in order to resume such attempts when the situation improves.
Alfa-Bank Ukraine, according to the NBU, as of July 1, 2022, ranked 7th (UAH 112.67 billion) in terms of total assets among 68 banks operating in the country. Its net loss in January-July 2022 amounted to UAH 3.52 billion. The financial result of the bank was affected by deductions to reserves at the level of UAH 8.357 billion.
According to the financial institution, its largest shareholders are currently indirectly Andrey Kosogov (40.9614%, after the war the packages of German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, which fell under the sanctions), Mikhail Fridman (32.86%) and Petr Aven (12. 4018%), as well as UniCredit S.p.A. (Italy, 9.9%) and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research (3.8736%). The Bulgarian ex-minister of finance, executive director of the Financial Markets Group of the London School of Economics and technical adviser to the European Commission Simeon Dyankov, in agreement with the NBU, is the trustee of the National Bank for the packages of Kosogov, Fridman and Aven, who also fell under sanctions.
In early June, Dyankov reported on the bank’s efforts to obtain regulatory approval to recapitalize with $1 billion in subordinated debt from sanctioned funds from a number of its shareholders. Speck specified that the amount of $1 billion is caused both by the possible need for $500-600 million to comply with the capital adequacy ratio in 2023, and by the desire to have a resource to increase lending.
David Arakhamia, the leader of the ruling Servant of the People faction, said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine last week that Alfa-Bank Ukraine needs additional capitalization by $1 billion, and if the asset is nationalized, then this amount will have to be paid to the state.
The National Bank of Ukraine has agreed on amendments to the charter of Alfa-Bank Ukraine on renaming it to Sens Bank, Roman Shpek, head of the supervisory board of the commercial bank, said.
“The message just came that the National Bank agreed on changes to the charter. But there is still more work to be done, other documents to be prepared,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Shpek specified that it is planned to complete the renaming process in December this year.
“Believe me, it is morally and psychologically important for us, the team, not to be associated with the Russian Alfa-Bank. This is the main reason for changing the name at this time,” he stressed.
According to the head of the Supervisory Board, he expects that the bank’s customers will also react positively to its renaming.
Commenting on the decrease in the bank’s assets, Shpek called it rather a positive sign, indicating a high level of control and management of the loan portfolio. The service level for corporate loans is 85%, he added.
“Of course, there were panic moods in the first months of the war, including because of the news about the sanctioning of the final beneficiaries or against the background of fakes that have been constantly trying to spread about us lately. But the situation is leveling off. In August, we recorded an increase in funds for urgent deposits,” the head of the Supervisory Board said.
He added that next year, based on the overall macroeconomic situation, the bank’s financial condition is unlikely to improve significantly, but the bank clearly sees how to maintain operating profitability.
As previously noted in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, ex-Minister of Finance of Bulgaria Simeon Dyankov, who in mid-April, in agreement with the National Bank, was given the right to vote in the majority stake in Alfa-Bank Ukraine, the board of the financial institution decided to abandon the Alfa brand and continue work under a new brand. The shareholders’ meeting approved the renaming on 12 August.
“When the board was deciding on a new brand, the decision became obvious. For the last two years, our priority has been the development of the Sense SuperApp digital bank,” Alla Komisarenko, head of the bank’s board, explained the choice of a new brand.
Alfa-Bank Ukraine, according to the NBU, as of July 1, 2022, ranked 7th (UAH 112.67 billion) in terms of total assets among 68 banks operating in the country. Its net loss in January-July 2022 amounted to UAH 3.52 billion. The financial result of the bank was affected by deductions to reserves at the level of UAH 8.357 billion.
