The Government of Canada will issue five-year bonds – Ukraine Sovereignty Bonds – to financially support Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the XXVII Triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians in Winnipeg on Friday.
“Canada remains unwavering in our commitment to support the people of Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s illegal and barbaric invasion, and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure Ukraine has the resources it needs to win. Now, through a bond designated for Ukraine, Canadians can contribute to this critical effort through a new federally backed investment,” Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement on the Prime Minister’s website.
Trudeau announced that the Government of Canada will issue Ukraine Sovereignty Bonds, which will help the government continue operations, including providing essential services to Ukrainians, like pensions, and purchasing fuel before winter.
The equivalent proceeds from this five-year bond will be channelled directly to Ukraine through the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Administered Account. This builds on the Government of Canada’s CAD 2 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine this year, the report said.
According to it, the new bonds will be offered by the participating financial institutions at denominations and rates to be announced shortly.
Those who decide to invest in this bond will actually purchase a regular five-year Canadian government bond backed by Canada’s AAA credit rating. Canada is the first country in the world outside of Ukraine to offer bonds in support of Ukraine for purchase.
To increase pressure on Putin’s regime, Trudeau also announced that Canada is imposing new sanctions on individuals and entities complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These new measures will target 35 senior officials of energy entities, including those of Gazprom and its subsidiaries, and six energy sector entities involved in Russia’s ongoing violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “These new measures build on the sanctions we have already implemented against over 1,400 individuals and entities,” he said.
He also announced that Canada intends to impose new sanctions on members of the Russian justice and security sectors, including police officers and investigators, prosecutors, judges, and prison officials, involved in gross and systematic human rights violations against Russian opposition leaders.
Trudeau said that the 39 armoured combat support vehicles (ACSVs) Canada announced for Ukraine in June have started to arrive in Europe, where training for the Ukrainian forces is underway, with the last expected to be delivered end of November. Since February 2022, Canada has committed over CAD 600 million in military assistance to Ukraine. Canada will continue to help Ukraine meet its urgent requirements for military and defence equipment.
The prime minister also said that Canada is allocating $55 million in previously announced funding to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian partners to support winterization initiatives. This includes providing shelter and distributing essential items such as blankets, clothing, heating appliances, and fuel.
In addition, the Prime Minister announced the launch of the Canada-Ukraine Science Partnership, which will invite up to 20 Ukraine-based scientists to come work and live in Canada.
According to the report, streamlining current visa and travel requirements, as of October 18, 2022, close to 315,000 applications have been approved.
monobank, which is one of the leaders in attracting individuals to the domestic government bond (OVGZ) market, has added the first foreign currency government bonds to its mobile application in the investment section.
According to the information in the application, customers will be able to purchase dollar bonds maturing on April 27, 2023 and euro bonds maturing on December 1 this year with a yield of 3.71% and 2.41% per annum, respectively.
The last additional placement of these dollar bonds by the Ministry of Finance took place on August 30 at a rate of 4% per annum, and bonds in euro – on May 24 at a rate of 2.5% per annum.
In general, 9,195 dollar and 5,491 euro securities are available for sale in the application, the par value of which is $1,000 and EUR1,000, respectively, with a total volume of issues of 494,596 and 110,026 pieces, respectively.
As reported, the possibility of such trading in currency government bonds appeared after the National Bank of Ukraine in mid-July granted the Settlement Center for Contracts in Financial Markets (RC, Kyiv), which carries out the clearing activities of the central counterparty, a license to carry out foreign exchange transactions. Thanks to this, on July 26, the RC began making settlements in foreign currency on transactions with foreign currency government bonds, and already at the end of that month – early August, such transactions began to be concluded on exchanges.
Public placement of issues of domestic bonds of the Kyiv City Council Series O and N, UAH 400 million each, will be held on the PFTS stock exchange from December 6 to December 8, according to a Friday posting on the official website of the exchange.
According to the report, the organizer of the placement of both series is state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv).
Settlements under the concluded agreements will be carried out without observing the delivery versus payment (DVP) principle.
As reported, by Kyiv City Council decision No. 1529/1570 dated June 24 this year, Kyiv plans to attract UAH 1.1 billion by issuing domestic bonds in three issues: UAH 300 million for Series M, UAH 400 million each for series N and O.
According to the document, the interest rate will be determined at the level of the NBU key policy rate as of the start date of the quarterly interest period plus a margin of 1% to 5% per annum based on the results of the competition for the selection of an underwriter. Proceeds from the placement of bonds will go to finance investments in the city’s infrastructure.
Ukrainian insurance companies in January-June 2021 received financial income of UAH 1.358 billion, which is 17.3% less than in the same period a year earlier (UAH 1.642 billion), according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine.
At the same time, it is clarified that income from participation in capital amounted to UAH 17.8 million (2.9 times more), income from bonds – UAH 719.8 million (more by 28.4%), from deposits – UAH 566.3 million (less by 39.7%), dividends on shares – UAH 3 million against UAH 100,000 for the same period a year earlier.
Other revenues of insurers for the first half of the year amounted to UAH 1.972 billion, while a year earlier, UAH 2.863 billion.
The regulator also reports that during the reporting period, insurance companies reduced their net profit to UAH 1.361 billion from UAH 1.918 billion in the first half of 2020.
In addition, income tax from ordinary activities in January-June of this year amounted to UAH 833.2 million, which is 2% more than in the same period a year earlier (UAH 816.2 million). Tax on gross income from activities by types of insurance, other than life insurance, amounted to UAH 534.6 million (more by 10.6%), life insurance – UAH 63.7 million (more by 9.8%), for transactions with non-resident reinsurers – UAH 300,000 (less by 25%), tax on profits from extraordinary events – UAH 200,000, which corresponds to the indicator for the same period a year earlier.
According to the NBU, the total number of insurance companies in Ukraine as of June 30, 2021 is 181, while on the same date a year earlier – 215, including 19 life insurers (20). At the same time, 166 insurance companies submitted reports on their activities to the regulator.
Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivery in Ukraine, started placing B series bonds for UAH 700 million on May 11.
The corresponding bond issue was registered by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission on May 7, 2020.
The bonds were issued for a period until February 17, 2023 with a coupon rate of 16% and a periodicity of payments four times a year. The placement period is from May 11 to July 10, 2020.
As reported, in 2020 the company intends to invest $100 million in its development.
In February-April 2019, Nova Poshta carried out a closed placement of bonds in the amount of UAH 300 million at 22% per annum with maturity until August 22, 2020. Funds from the placement of bonds were used to modernize the infrastructure and the network of the issuer’s branches.
Nova Poshta, founded in 2001, is a leader in the express delivery market in Ukraine. The company’s network consists of more than 6,000 branches throughout the country.
Kharkiv in August placed three-year E series domestic bonds for UAH 250 million maturing in 2022, Fitch Ratings has reported.
According to the report, the agency assigned the bonds a priority unsecured rating of “B.”
“This is the first tranche of a UAH 1 billion bond to be placed in 2019-2020. Another UAH 250 million tranche is planned for November 2019,” the agency’s report says.
The interest rate is 18% per annum, income is paid quarterly.
According to the decision of Kharkiv City Council of June 19, 2019, bonds worth UAH 1 billion of E, F, G, H series for UAH 250 million each are to be placed within two years.
E series bonds will mature on August 24, 2022, F series on November 23, 2022, G series on February 22, 2023, and H series on May 24, 2023.
“The purpose of the loan is to raise funds to finance the budget deficit for the development of the city of Kharkiv, including the construction and reconstruction of social and cultural facilities, transport infrastructure, roads and engineering facilities,” the decision reads.
