Corporate bonds of NovaPay, a non-bank financial institution that is part of the Nova Group, have been purchased by about 2,000 Ukrainians for UAH 365.5 million through the company’s app in the four months since their placement, the company’s press service said on Thursday.
“Under the agreements that have already expired, customers have already been paid UAH 255.1 million. Most often, clients prefer medium-term bonds. 56% of clients invest in bonds repeatedly,” CFO Igor Prikhodko said in a release on Thursday.
As reported, on February 20, NovaPay announced the start of bond sales. It was noted that they can be purchased for a period of 1 to 12 months for the amount of UAH 1000. The interest rate for investments for one, two and three months was 16% per annum, six months – 17% per annum and 12 months – 18% per annum. The issuer stated that it intends to actively use the bonds in repurchase agreements for a period of one month to one year, creating a convenient alternative to deposits, and to launch their secondary market.
According to NovaPay’s latest release, 75% of bond investors are men, 25% are women, the average age is 37, and the oldest investor was 75. The average check for transactions through the app is UAH 41 thousand.
Currently, the investment rate for a month has been reduced to 13% per annum, for 2 months – to 14%, for 3 months – to 16%, for 6 and 12 months – to 16.5% per annum.
In 2023, NovaPay registered three public issues of interest-bearing bonds of series A, B, and C for UAH 100 million each. In 2024, the company issued three more issues of such securities – series D, E and F. The rating agency Standard-Rating assigned them a credit rating of uaAA.
Founded in 2001, NovaPay is an international financial service that is part of the Nova group and provides online and offline financial services at Nova Poshta offices. According to its website, the company employs about 13 thousand people in more than 3.6 thousand Nova Poshta offices across Ukraine. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the company accounts for 35% of the total volume of domestic money transfers.
Nova Poshta LLC, the largest logistics operator in Ukraine and a member of the NOVA group, has fully placed its issue of interest-bearing unsecured E series bonds with a total nominal value of UAH 1 billion.
According to a report by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the company registered the report on the results of the issue on July 4, while the issue was initially registered on April 26 this year.
On May 21, the State Oschadbank (Kyiv) announced that it had entered into an agreement with Nova Poshta to purchase 15-month series E bonds worth UAH 650 million. It was clarified that this is the third deal since 2019 to finance Nova Poshta by the state-owned bank through the purchase of corporate bonds.
“Thanks to the financing raised, Nova Poshta has the opportunity to actively invest in the development and improvement of operational processes, quickly recover from the shelling of infrastructure, and our customers can continue to receive quality service,” Serhiy Yermolenko, Director of the Corporate Finance Department of the NOVA Group, was quoted as saying.
As reported, on April 26, the NSSMC also registered a UAH 1 billion issue of F series bonds on April 26, but there is no information on the results of this issue yet.
According to the 2023 report, the public offering of E series bonds started on February 19 this year, F series – on March 19, and their maturity dates are February 18 and March 18, 2027, respectively.
In 2023, Nova Poshta made two bond issues – “C” and “D” – each with a nominal amount of UAH 800 million. The C series bonds were issued for a 12-month term with a 24% p.a. interest rate, while the D series bonds were issued for a 20-month term with a 23% p.a. interest rate.
Earlier, in February 2023, Nova Poshta redeemed the UAH 700 million of Series B bonds issued in March 2020.
In 2023, the consolidated net income of “Nova Poshta” LLC amounted to UAH 43.65 billion, which is 53.3% more than in 2022, and the consolidated net profit reached UAH 4.28 billion, which is 31.1% better than in 2022.
According to its unconsolidated financial statements, in 2023, Nova Poshta LLC increased its net profit by 85.7% to UAH 3 billion 967.2 million, while its revenue increased by 54% to UAH 36.47 billion.
State-owned PrivatBank, Oschadbank and Ukreximbank have purchased the largest amount of domestic government bonds since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion and have become market leaders in terms of government bonds with UAH 316 billion, UAH 154.2 billion and UAH 130.5 billion, respectively.
“PrivatBank’s clients mainly invest in hryvnia domestic government bonds (64.5%) and US dollar bonds (33.7%). At the same time, 80% of clients reinvest in securities of the Ministry of Finance when redeeming government bonds,” the financial institution’s press service said.
PrivatBank noted that every third hryvnia of the 1 trillion hryvnia raised in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia was invested by the bank or its clients.
In its turn, Oschadbank clarified that UAH 154.23 billion in equivalent of the total portfolio of domestic government bonds, UAH 26.6 billion, was purchased since the beginning of 2024, UAH 65.29 billion in 2023, and UAH 62.34 billion in 2022.
The top three are followed by the state-owned Ukrgasbank, which purchased the equivalent of UAH 89.3 billion of domestic government bonds in the primary market.
Among the top ten banks in the country in terms of assets, FUIB and Sens Bank also published data on investments in domestic government bonds.
Thus, according to the information on FUIB’s website, the amount of investments of more than 2 thousand clients of the bank (both individuals and legal entities) in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has reached 1.6 billion in national currency, while foreign currency portfolios amounted to more than $50.5 million and EUR10.5 million, respectively.
The press service of Sens Bank indicates that as of today, the financial institution’s portfolio of government bonds held by individual investors is over UAH 8.1 billion, which “corresponds to about 13% of the total portfolio of government bonds held by individual investors in the country.”
“(…) our bank’s clients, both individuals and business representatives, continue to actively invest in securities. Thus, in April this year alone, our clients purchased government bonds worth UAH 1.87 billion, of which UAH 1.6 billion were military bonds,” the bank noted.
Sens emphasized that clients prefer hryvnia bonds, as the bank’s information shows that in April this year, 53% of consumers preferred them.
Other banks from the “Big Ten” by assets as of April 1 this year – Raiffeisen, Ukrsibbank, Universal Bank (mono) and Credit Agricole – did not publish information on the volume of purchases of government bonds since the beginning of February 24, 2022 on their websites at the time of the publication of this material.
At the same time, Kredobank, the 14th largest bank by assets, reported that its clients have invested more than UAH 3 billion in government bonds since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression, and more than 70% of this amount was invested in military bonds.
Kredobank reminded that it was one of the first banks to cancel brokerage fees for the purchase of military bonds after the war started and reduced the minimum investment amount in government securities to UAH 50 thousand.
“The main preferences of Kredobank’s customers for 2024 are short-term, up to 1 year, military government bonds in national and foreign currencies. We also observe that after the maturity of the bonds, more than 50% of customers re-invest their funds, doubling the amount,” said Serhii Kucheriavyi, Director of the Liquidity and Securities Department of the bank.
As reported, the Ministry of Finance managed to lower interest rates by another 0.1-0.27 percentage points (p.p.) at auctions for the placement of domestic government bonds on Tuesday, May 21, bringing the total decrease to 0.92-1.37 p.p. after the National Bank cut the discount rate from 14.5% to 13.5% per annum on April 26.
According to the website of the Ministry of Finance, the cut-off rate for one-year securities decreased from 15.15% to 15.05%, for two-year securities – from 16.2% to 16.08%, and for three-year securities – from 17.2% to 16.93%.
Ukrainian citizens and businesses, including banks, have purchased more than UAH 1 trillion worth of domestic government bonds on market terms, making investments in bonds the second largest source of state budget financing after international aid, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
“Thanks to the funds raised from government bonds, we were able to finance more than 200 days of our defense and protection, which is equivalent to 15% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2023,” Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko was quoted as saying in the release.
According to the Ministry of Finance, there are currently more than UAH 1.6 trillion worth of domestic government bonds in circulation, of which the share of commercial banks is 42.2%, the National Bank – 41.5%, legal entities – 10%, individuals – 3.8%, non-residents – 2.4%, and territorial communities – 0.1%.
It is emphasized that the volume of investments by individuals has increased by about 600 times since 2016, and by more than 2.4 times since February 24, 2022. Legal entities have increased their investments in government bonds 7 times since 2016 and 2 times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
The Ministry of Finance notes that from January 2022 to March 2024, coupon income was paid to Ukrainian individuals and legal entities (excluding banks) in the amount of UAH 31.5 billion, and to foreign ones – UAH 19 billion, which amounts to UAH 50.5 billion in total.
The agency emphasizes that, along with profitability, an important characteristic is the high liquidity of domestic government bonds in the secondary market, as investors can sell bonds at any time at the current market price. This is confirmed by the statistics of the average daily volume of transactions at par value, which amounts to about UAH 2.4 billion in equivalent, which is 26% higher compared to the average daily figure in 2021. Such data indicates that there are a sufficient number of market participants to ensure efficient trading.
“Convenient digital solutions for purchasing bonds, market yields that exceed inflation expectations, and a 100% guarantee of repayment from the state make government bonds the most attractive instrument on the market,” the Ministry of Finance summarized.
As reported, the Ministry managed to lower interest rates by another 0.1-0.27 percentage points (p.p.) at the last primary auctions for the placement of government bonds on Tuesday, May 21, bringing the total decrease to 0.92-1.37 p.p. after the National Bank cut the discount rate from 14.5% to 13.5% per annum on April 26. For one-year securities, the rate decreased from 15.15% to 15.05%, for two-year securities – from 16.2% to 16.08%, and for three-year securities – from 17.2% to 16.93%.
According to the Settlement Center, the number of registered private investors reached 183.56 thousand at the beginning of May this year, compared to 166.12 thousand at the beginning of this year, 126.79 thousand at the beginning of last year and 22.79 thousand at the beginning of 2022.
State-owned Oschadbank (Kyiv) has entered into an agreement with Nova Poshta to purchase unsecured corporate bonds of the E series with a maturity of 15 months for UAH 650 million, the press service of the financial institution reported on Tuesday.
“The acquisition of bonds for such a significant amount demonstrates both Oschad’s readiness to share risks with businesses to rebuild the country and the impeccable reputation of Nova Poshta,” Yuriy Katsiyon, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Oschad responsible for corporate business, said in a press release.
“In addition, this project can be another step towards popularizing securities as an alternative tool for raising funds for the development of Ukrainian business,” he added.
It is specified that the issue of series E bonds was registered on April 26, 2024. This is the third transaction since 2019 to finance Nova Poshta by the state bank through the purchase of corporate bonds.
“Thanks to the funding raised, Nova Poshta is able to actively invest in the development and improvement of operational processes, quickly recover from infrastructure shelling, and our customers can continue to receive quality service,” Serhiy Yermolenko, Director of Corporate Finance at NOVA Group, was quoted as saying.
As reported earlier, Nova Poshta LLC, the largest logistics operator in Ukraine and a member of the NOVA Group, issued interest-bearing unsecured corporate bonds of series E and F with a nominal amount of UAH 1 billion each, which were registered by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) on April 26 this year.
No other information on the parameters of these issues, including the maturity and yield, is yet available on the regulator’s website or the issuer’s website.
In 2023, Nova Poshta made two bond issues – “C” and “D” – each with a nominal amount of UAH 800 million. The C series bonds were issued for a 12-month term with a 24% p.a. interest rate, while the D series bonds were issued for a 20-month term with a 23% p.a. interest rate.
Earlier, in February 2023, Nova Poshta redeemed the UAH 700 million of Series B bonds issued in March 2020.
In 2023, the consolidated net income of “Nova Poshta” LLC amounted to UAH 43.65 billion, which is 53.3% more than in 2022, and the consolidated net profit reached UAH 4.28 billion, which is 31.1% better than in 2022.
According to its unconsolidated financial statements, in 2023, Nova Poshta LLC increased its net profit by 85.7% to UAH 3 billion 967.2 million, while its revenue increased by 54% to UAH 36.47 billion.
Nova Poshta LLC, the largest logistics operator in Ukraine and a member of the NOVA group, is issuing interest-bearing unsecured corporate bonds of series E and F.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC), it registered both issues on April 26 this year.
At the same time, information on the parameters of these issues, including the volume, maturity and yield, is not yet available on the regulator’s website or on the issuer’s website.
Last year, Nova Poshta made two bond issues – “C” and “D” – each with a nominal amount of UAH 800 million. The C series bonds were issued for a 12-month term with a 24% p.a. rate, while the D series bonds were issued for a 20-month term with a 23% p.a. rate.
Earlier in February 2023, Nova Poshta redeemed the UAH 700 million of Series B bonds issued in March 2020.
According to the clarity-project, in 2023 the company increased its net profit by 85.7% to UAH 3 billion 967.2 million, and its revenue increased by 54% to UAH 36 billion 468.9 million.
