The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on July 11 revoked the license of PJSC Insurance Company Kyivska Rus (Kyiv) to provide financial services, according to the regulator’s website.
The reason for this decision was the failure to submit reports for 2022, failure to submit information and documents at the request of the National Bank and the company’s failure to eliminate the identified violations in the time specified by the regulator (June 8, 2023).
According to the last submitted to the NBU statements of PJSC IC Kyivska Rus for nine months of 2022, the amount of insurance payments amounted to UAH 85,4 mln, of which UAH 76,9 mln was transferred to reinsurance. The insurer has not made any payments during the specified period.
As it was informed, on May 8, 2023 the NBU has applied to IC “Kyivska Rus” a measure of influence in the form of temporary suspension of licenses in connection with non-submission of reports for the first half of 2022 and for 2022, as well as actuarial report for 2022.
The company also did not submit the report on corporate governance and information on key risks and results of stress testing for 2022, did not provide information and documents at the request of the NBU.
Private JSC IC Kyivska Rus carries out activities on voluntary and compulsory types of insurance other than life insurance.
The labor market continues to grow for the fourth month in a row: the number of vacancies in June increased by 4% to May and reached almost 94 thousand, but the dynamics of growth has slowed down a little, such results of regular research of the labor market released the company Work.ua.
“Slightly decreased growth rates and reduced the number of job seekers. However, salaries have increased, which is a natural reaction of employers to the competition for candidates. In general, the labor market continues to recover,” the document says.
According to it, the lower dynamics of growth in June compared to previous months (May +9%, April +14%, March +11%) can be explained by the onset of a low business season.
It is noted that Kyiv region became the leader in the number of vacancies and for the first time crossed the mark of 30.1 thousand, which is almost a third of the total number. The second place is occupied by Lviv region – 9 thousand vacancies or 10% of all offers, the third – Dnipropetrovsk region (8.9 thousand), the fourth – Odessa region (almost 6.9 thousand). Kharkiv region closes the top five with 3.4 thousand job offers.
Kharkiv region is also among the five regions with the largest increase in vacancies (+10%) along with Ivano-Frankivsk region (+10%, up to 3.1 thousand), Zaporizhzhya region (+9%, up to 1.7 thousand), Odessa region (+7%) and Volyn region (+6%, up to 1.9 thousand).
Specialists emphasized that in June there was more work in Kherson region: the increase in vacancies for the month amounted to 12%, but there are still few offers there – only 156.
As for the most demanded positions, the top five traditionally include sales consultant (8.2 thousand vacancies), sales manager (6.4 thousand), driver (3.3 thousand), cook (3.5 thousand) and accountant (3.2 thousand).
The biggest growth in June was shown by the vacancy of elementary school teacher (+44%, up to 187 vacancies).
“Predominantly private schools and kindergartens are looking for staff to prepare children for school during the summer vacation,” – according to Work.ua.
According to the data of the system of hiring management (SUN) Work.ua, the number of job seekers who created and updated resumes in June, decreased compared to a month earlier – by 4%, to 351 thousand. The vast majority of job seekers are women (57%). The largest proportion, 35% of the total, are candidates aged 16-24.
Among job seekers, 36% have no experience, 31% have minimal to 5 years of experience, and 33% have more than 5 years of experience.
The rate at which job seekers are competing for jobs has slowed from 20% in May to 17% in June. Jobs for digital specialists, mainly IT programmers, are in high demand. For example, the competition of applicants for the vacancy of Front-end programmer in June increased almost half as much as in May. Highly competitive vacancies also include chat specialist, video editor, copywriter, graphic designer.
Low competition and, accordingly, better chances to find a job in the positions of medical workers: gastroenterologist, hirudotherapist, ultrasound doctor.
The average salary in Ukraine for the first half of 2023, according to Work.ua, increased by 13% – from 15 thousand UAH to 17 thousand UAH.
In the regional context, the salary increased in Kyiv region – from 18.2 thousand UAH to 18.75 thousand UAH, Lviv region – from 16 thousand UAH to almost 16.78 thousand UAH, Odessa region – from 16 thousand UAH to almost 16.26 thousand UAH and Kharkiv region from 15 thousand UAH to 16 thousand UAH.
The highest salaries are offered to media barber – 55 thousand UAH, driver-international 40 thousand UAH, endodontist, construction project manager, supermarket manager – 35 thousand UAH, business analyst – 34 thousand UAH, as well as straightener and realtor – 32.5 thousand UAH.
The smallest salaries from 7 thousand UAH to 10 thousand UAH are offered to concierge, orderly, cleaner, dishwasher and porter.
Oil prices are rising weakly on Wednesday morning ahead of the publication of the US Department of Energy report on energy stocks in the country.
Traders’ attention is also directed to the data on the dynamics of consumer prices in the States for June, which is expected to influence the decisions of the Federal Reserve at the nearest meetings.
Inflation data will be published at 15:30 Q2, the report of the Ministry of Energy on energy stocks – at 17:30 Q2.
The cost of September Brent crude futures on the London-based ICE Futures exchange at 8:15 Q2 on Wednesday is $79.49 per barrel, up $0.09 (0.11%) from the previous session’s closing price. On Tuesday, these contracts rose $1.71 (2.2%) to $79.4 per barrel.
The price of WTI oil futures for August at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by $0.1 (0.13%) to $74.93 per barrel. The day before, the cost of contracts rose by $1.84 (2.52%), to $74.83 per barrel.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), released on Tuesday night to Wednesday, showed an unexpected increase in U.S. inventories in the week ended July 7. The indicator increased by 3.026 million barrels, while experts surveyed by Trading Economics, on average, expected its decline by 200 thousand barrels.
A week earlier, oil reserves fell by 4.382 million barrels.
A total of over 50 issues of corporate bonds of about 30 issuers had to be redeemed from the beginning of 2022 to mid-2023, some of them were restructured, but not a single default on bonds has been recorded, said Maxim Libanov, a member of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM) of Ukraine.
“If we compare the situation in 2022 with the situation in 2008-09, in general we can say that the market has matured, and – all participants. As of now, there are no defaults,” he said at the USAID conference “Debt Instruments to Support Recovery” held recently in Kyiv.
Mr. Libanov specified that the matter concerns both traditional interest-bearing and discount corporate bonds and construction target bonds.
According to him, the issue was partially resolved by the Commission’s decision to extend the fulfillment of obligations until the end of wartime, as the commissioning of construction projects during this period is objectively complicated.
As stated by the member of the NCSSM, it gave a good result: several issuers, whose construction should have been completed in 2022 or early 2023, “calmly” complete it, including even in Kharkiv.
As Libanov stated, the regulator’s position is not to interfere in the relations between the issuer and investors while they are trying to reach an agreement, and if they have reached it, to fix it as quickly and easily as possible. According to him, in one of the last cases it took a week to formalize the restructuring in the Commission.
He noted that the SEC facilitated the restructuring process by launching a system, which allows holding meetings of bondholders, jointly with the National Depository.
As the member of the Commission specified, if we set aside the target bonds, then out of a little more than 10 issuers of corporate debt, eight have restructured: half of them used the meeting of bondholders through the National Depository, and the other half, due to a small number of investors, received written personal consent from all of them.
Speaking about the plans, Libanov said that the SECP is working to finalize the legislative framework for sustainable development bonds or ESG-bonds, which include green bonds.
He added that the Commission is also studying quasi-corporate and quasi-debt instruments, in particular finalizing a pilot project on loan notes.
According to the Commission member, the regulator is also working with the EBRD on securitization and secured bonds. “We have approved the concept, now we are working on the draft law. I hope that somewhere in the fall we will be able to show the first version,” Libanov specified.
Naftogaz Ukrainy, the parent company of Naftogaz Group, made a net profit of UAH 7.7 billion in the first quarter of 2023 against a net loss of UAH 24.6 billion in the same period last year, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
“This result was possible due to a significant improvement in the financial performance of the group’s key enterprises compared to the first quarter of 2022,” said Naftogaz Group head Oleksiy Chernyshev, whose words are quoted in the report.
At the same time, the consolidated loss at the end of January-March 2023 amounted to UAH 1.395 billion against UAH 57.579 billion for the same period last year. Consolidated income from sales decreased by 23.1% (by UAH 20.626 billion) to UAH 68.54 billion. Gross consolidated loss amounted to UAH 12.097 billion against UAH 34.156 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
According to data reflected in the consolidated financial statements of Naftogaz Group for January-March 2023, the group’s consolidated operating profit in the period amounted to UAH 3.42 billion, while in the first quarter of last year the group had a consolidated operating loss of UAH 57.032 billion.
“The generation of operating profit is an important indicator of business consistency. This is a significant achievement, given the war and the starting positions from which we started work,” Chernyshev emphasized.
As explained in Naftogaz, the statements also show that the main reportable segments of the group showed net operating profit for the first quarter of 2023.
“The group’s enterprises that ensure fulfillment of special obligations (SOO, provision on special obligations – IF), supplying natural gas to socially sensitive categories of consumers, also significantly improved the level of cash collection for gas supplied,” the press release said.
This allowed the enterprises to significantly improve the operating financial result: losses in the mentioned reporting period amounted to only UAH 6.3 billion compared to UAH 33 billion of losses in the first quarter of 2022, the report said.
“It should also be added that during January-March 2023 to the consolidated budget of Ukraine enterprises of Naftogaz group paid taxes in the amount of UAH 26 billion, which is more than 7% of all tax revenues of the state for the corresponding period”, – added in the company.
At the same time, in April 2023, the group successfully completed the 2022/2023 heating season under the PCP without receiving any additional funding from the state.
“Moreover, even without additional support, the group not only retains, but increases the production of Ukrainian gas under war conditions,” Naftogaz noted.
Ukraine’s progress in implementing the reforms required for EU membership is impressive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.
“The speed at which Ukraine is pursuing EU membership (…) is excellent, impressive. It is an achievement-based process and we see with what enthusiasm and intensity Ukraine is reforming and moving rapidly towards EU membership,” the EC chief told reporters in Vilnius.
“I firmly believe that if they continue in the same spirit, they will soon succeed,” she added.
Von der Leyen will take part in a meeting with leaders and partners of the North Atlantic Alliance on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
