ARX Life Insurance Company (Kyiv) collected insurance premiums totaling UAH 91.185 million in January–March 2026, which is 11.8% more than in the same period of 2025.
This was reported by the rating agency “Standard-Rating” in its update on the insurer’s credit rating/financial stability (reliability) rating, which was maintained at “uaAAA” on the national scale for the reporting period.
According to a statement on the rating agency’s website, the volume of payments and reimbursements made by the insurer in the first quarter of 2026 increased by 12.45% compared to the first quarter of 2025—to UAH 17.111 million. Thus, the insurer’s payout ratio increased by 0.11 percentage points to 18.77%.
The company’s acquisition costs for the first quarter of 2026 rose by 0.05% compared to the same period in 2025—to UAH 43.011 million.
In 2025, ARKS Life Insurance Company reported a net profit of UAH 21.094 million, which is 57.48% higher than in the first quarter of 2025.
As of April 1, 2026, the company’s assets increased by 2.67% to UAH 436.138 million, equity by 6.04% to UAH 370.181 million, liabilities decreased by 12.87% to UAH 65.957 million, and cash and cash equivalents increased by 21.49% to UAH 198.771 million.
Thus, as of the beginning of the second quarter of 2026, the company had a capitalization ratio of 561.25% and a coverage ratio of liabilities by cash and cash equivalents of 301.36%.
At the same time, RA notes that during the reporting period, the insurer made financial investments totaling UAH 226.044 million, consisting of government bonds and municipal bonds (84.71% of the portfolio) and deposits in banks with investment-grade credit ratings (15.29% of the portfolio).
ARX Life is part of the international insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. ARX Life ranks among the top ten companies in the life insurance market in Ukraine.
The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has raised $40 million to build a new campus in Obolon, Kyiv; part of these funds will be allocated to a 100-bed student co-living facility, according to the KSE press office.
A co-living space is a modern student housing format that combines private areas or rooms for sleeping and relaxing with shared spaces: a kitchen, living room, coworking area, and study zones.
“KSE students live and study side by side: common areas, the library, labs, classrooms, and housing—all in one environment. Students inspire one another every day. The idea for science, business, or politics in Ukraine in the coming decades may begin with a conversation over coffee in the kitchen,” commented KSE University Rector Tymofiy Brik.
Currently, 296 students live in KSE co-living spaces in Kyiv. The new space adds another 100 spots.
It is reported that among the first residents of the co-living space in the new academic year will be 50 students returning to Ukraine through the Come Back Home grant program (supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York), and another 50 students who are already studying at KSE or have arrived from other cities in Ukraine.
KSE’s existing main campus is the Dragon Capital building on Shpaka Street in Kyiv. A new campus will open on Obolonska Embankment, with its buildings housing co-living spaces and lecture halls.
KSE is opening its first new facility this academic year: a 1,022-square-meter co-working space with over 100 seats and 858 square meters of classrooms.
The total budget for the campus development is $40 million.
As reported, in late April 2025, KSE purchased a new campus—the “Golf Club” in Kyiv’s Obolon district—for $18 million. This year, an additional $22 million was raised, part of which is being allocated to the new student co-living space and new lecture halls on Obolonska Embankment.
KSE is a private university and research center founded in 1996. It operates as a non-profit organization registered in the United States. Since 2022, KSE donors have allocated over $150 million to humanitarian, defense, and educational projects, including the development of university infrastructure.
The new Smart Line plant in the VinIndustri industrial park (IP) (Vinnytsia) has begun production of paint booths for the metalworking industry; initial investments in the plant totaled 46 million UAH, according to Dmytro Kysilevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“The plant’s design capacity is 20 paint booths per month. The first phase covers an area of 2,800 square meters. The industrial facility for the second phase, with an area of 5,000 square meters, is scheduled to be built by the end of 2026, with commissioning in 2027. The planned investment in the second phase is 60 million UAH,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Kysilevsky emphasized that with the second phase, Smart Line will become Ukraine’s largest manufacturer of paint booths.
In total, the company plans to employ 150 workers; currently, 32 specialists are working there, and the search for another 15 employees is ongoing.
“The first paint booths manufactured in the industrial park have been exported. Deliveries have already been made to Poland and Moldova. An order from Estonia is currently being fulfilled,” the MP said.
He added that to import equipment for the second phase of the Smart Line plant, the company plans to take advantage of the incentives provided for industrial park participants, specifically the zero VAT rate and zero import duties on equipment.
“The company can also take advantage of a zero corporate income tax rate for a period of 10 years, provided that the freed-up funds are reinvested. The Vinnytsia City Council has reduced the land tax for industrial parks from 3% to 1%. In addition, park residents are exempt from property tax,” Kysilevsky noted.
The VinIndustri industrial park, covering 26 hectares, was established in 2021. The initiative came from the Vinnytsia City Council.
According to information on its website, the Smart Line powder coating equipment plant was founded in 2014, and at the end of April of this year, the company began moving to its own production facility.
The company’s co-owners are two entrepreneurs from Khmelnytskyi—company director Oleksandr Bebekh (66.7%) and Serhiy Korbin (33.3%).
As previously reported, among the declared residents of the VinIndustri industrial park are Firewood (a manufacturer of equipment for producing fuel briquettes and pellets), Vizardy (metalworking for construction and agriculture), and the pharmaceutical distributor BaDM.
Since the start of 2026, 135 people have died in water-related incidents in Ukraine, while 74 were rescued, according to Viktor Vitovetsky, director of the Department of Civil Protection and Preventive Activities at the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of the year—that is, over the past four months—135 people have died. These are deaths that occurred in bodies of water. Unfortunately, 10 of them were children. Although this is a lower percentage than during the same period last year, you know, that is little consolation, because it is very difficult to measure a life using any kind of statistics,” Vitovetsky said, noting that 44% fewer people died in the water in 2026 than during the same period last year.
In addition, Vitovetsky reported that 74 people were rescued, including 23 children.
According to preliminary data, Ukraine’s international reserves decreased by $3.79 billion, or 7.3%, in April and stood at $48.22 billion as of May 1, 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Thursday.
“This trend was driven by the fact that the National Bank’s foreign exchange interventions and the country’s foreign currency debt payments exceeded proceeds from the placement of foreign currency government bonds and from international partners,” the regulator noted on its website.
According to the published data, net international reserves in April decreased by $3.71 billion, or 10.0%, compared to March, to $33.47 billion.
It is noted that the share of U.S. dollar-denominated assets in international reserves as of April 1, 2026, rose to 71.0% from 70.4% at the beginning of March, while the share of euro-denominated assets fell to 19.4% from 20.3%. A year ago, the share of dollar-denominated assets in reserves was 82.9%, and that of euro-denominated assets was 10.0%.
The share of gold in international reserves as of early May was 8.3%, compared to 7.7% a month earlier and 6.2% a year earlier.
As of May 1, 2026, securities accounted for 59.5% of the international reserves, cash, funds in correspondent accounts, and deposits for 32.2%, and monetary gold for 8.3%, while a month earlier these shares stood at 55.4%, 36.8%, and 7.7%, respectively, and a year ago at 60.0%, 33.7%, and 6.2%.
As noted in the report, $377.9 million was received in the government’s foreign currency accounts at the National Bank in April, including $339.4 million from the placement of foreign currency government bonds and $38.5 million through World Bank accounts.
In addition, Ukraine received a $1.01 billion loan under an agreement with the United Kingdom within the framework of the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) mechanism; however, these funds were not credited to Ukraine’s international reserves due to their restricted purpose.
At the same time, the Ukrainian government paid $716.6 million for servicing and repaying foreign-currency government debt, including $433.7 million for servicing and repaying foreign-currency government bonds, $186.7 million for servicing and repaying debt to the World Bank, $73.4 million for servicing and repaying debt to the EU, and $22.8 million for debt to other creditors.
In addition, Ukraine paid $255.3 million to the International Monetary Fund.
On Ukraine’s foreign exchange market, the National Bank sold nearly $3.58 billion in April, which is $1.18 billion less than in March.
The revaluation of financial instruments in April increased the value of reserves by $378.0 million.
“The current level of international reserves provides financing for 4.9 months of future imports,” the National Bank added.
As reported in the regulator’s April macroeconomic forecast, the forecast for international reserves in 2026 remained virtually unchanged—$64.8 billion versus $65.0 billion in the January forecast.
At the same time, for 2027, the National Bank lowered its forecast for reserves to $66.5 billion from $72.9 billion, which is $6.4 billion, or 8.8%, less than the January estimate, and for 2028—to $61.1 billion from $70.6 billion, which is $9.5 billion, or 13.5%, less.
At a meeting on May 5, shareholders of VUSO Insurance Company (Kyiv) decided to allocate UAH 20.013 million from the remaining net retained earnings for 2024, which total UAH 98.811 million, for dividend payments.
As the company reported in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the remaining portion of retained earnings for 2024, amounting to UAH 78.799 million, will remain undistributed.
It is noted that dividends will be paid at a rate of UAH 0.73 per share. Dividends will be paid in full directly to shareholders in accordance with the procedure established by law within six months from the date of the relevant resolution by the general meeting of shareholders.
VUSO Insurance Company was founded in 2001. It is a member of the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU) and the Ukrainian Insurance Federation (UIF), a participant in the Direct Loss Settlement Agreement, and a member of the Nuclear Insurance Pool.
In 2024, the company collected UAH 3.462 billion in gross premiums, which is 29.3% more than in 2023; the company’s net premiums grew by 25.55% to UAH 3.105 billion, and net earned premiums by 15.83% to UAH 2.737 billion. It paid out UAH 1.414 billion to clients, which is 45.40% higher than the volume of insurance payments and reimbursements for 2023.
As of January 1, 2025, the insurer’s assets grew by 25.76% to UAH 1.917 billion, equity by 22.45% to UAH 755.839 million, liabilities increased by 28.01% to UAH 1.161 billion, and cash and cash equivalents by 36.09% to UAH 758.730 million.
