On September 10, the Supervisory Board of Ukrainian Security and Insurance Company (UOSK, Kyiv) decided to terminate the powers of CEO Valeriy Gorkovets and appointed Viktor Reznichenko to this position, according to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
As reported, on February 2, 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine revoked all the insurer’s licenses to conduct insurance activities and excluded it from the State Register of Financial Institutions on the basis of its application.
As reported, UOSK’s shareholders at a meeting on November 17, 2023, decided to revoke the insurer’s insurance licenses and exclude information about the insurer from the State Register of Financial Institutions.
According to the NSSMC, as of the second quarter of 2023, the company’s shareholders were the security police departments of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipro, Poltava, and Odesa regions, which owned from 5.669% to 6.227%, the security police department – 15.758%, and the security police department of Kyiv – 24.742%.
The Ukrainian Security and Insurance Company was registered in 1996 and specializes in risk insurance.
On July 25-26, Viktor Ivanchyk, CEO of Astarta Agro Holding, bought about 0.069% of the holding’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) for a total of PLN516.56 thousand (about $131.5 thousand at the current exchange rate), bringing his stake to 40.757% of the issued shares.
According to information on the WSE website, Albacon Ventures Ltd. owned by Ivanczyk, acquired 17.65 thousand shares in about 200 transactions these days at prices ranging from PLN27.85 to PLN30.6 per share, with an average price of PLN29.77.
On Friday, Astarta’s share price fell more than the market – by 4.95% to PLN28.80 ($7.33 at the current exchange rate).
As reported, in December 2023, Ivanchik resumed buying shares on the stock exchange after a break that lasted since June. According to the annual report, over the past year, Ivanchyk acquired 0.26%, or 64.90 thousand shares, increasing his stake to 40.26%, or 10 million 64.90 thousand shares. By now, he has reached 10 million 189.25 thousand shares, in particular due to receiving 0.5%, or 124.755 thousand shares as remuneration this year.
The annual report noted that, in addition to Ivanchyk’s family, Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and about 2% of the shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
In the first quarter of 2024, Astarta reduced its net profit by 44.1% year-on-year to EUR9.02 million, while its consolidated revenue increased by 1.4% to EUR165.78 million.
The Supervisory Board of PJSC Insurance Company “Columnaid Ukraine” on June 18 terminated the powers of CEO Svyatoslav Yaroshevych, appointing him Acting Chairman of the Board, according to the company’s information posted in the system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market.
The reason for this decision was the termination of the sole executive body “CEO” and the appointment of a collegial executive body “board of the company” in accordance with the new version of its charter.
It is emphasized that Yaroshevich is appointed acting pre-management until the National Bank approves his candidacy for the position of chairman of the board.
In addition, the NAB has appointed the head of underwriting department Oleksiy Pilipenko and financial director Yulia Aniskina as acting members of the Board, also before the approval of the NBU.
PJSC IC Colonnade Ukraine (until 2016 – PJSC with AI “QBE Ukraine”) was founded in 1998 as the first international insurer in the Ukrainian market.
As reported, the company Colonnade Finance SARL (Luxembourg) in November 2015 has concentrated 99,9833% of the authorized capital of the insurer. Earlier Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited entered into an agreement with QBE Management (Ireland) Limited and its Ukrainian partner on indirect acquisition of 100% of the Ukrainian IC through the companies Colonnade Finance SARL (Luxembourg), Fairfax Holdings Inc. (Connecticut, USA), Fairfax Financial (US) LLS (Delaware, USA).
Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO of VEON Group, the parent company of Ukraine’s largest telecom operator Kyivstar, plans to return to Kyiv in late January to meet with his team and continue the dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities, he said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.
“I hope that we will meet with many stakeholders, including the Ukrainian government, but not only,” Terzioglu said.
He added that during his first visit in October last year, he was unable to talk to Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma, who has been publicly stating the possibility of nationalizing Kyivstar since July last year, and hopes that he will be able to do so during his upcoming visit.
“When the rumors emerged and Mr. Shurma gave his interviews, it had a significant impact on trading volumes and share prices. Now the shock has passed, but we lost almost 30% of the value of our shares during that period,” stated the CEO of VEON.
Commenting on the seizure of 47.85% of Kyivstar shares, which is comparable to Letter One’s stake in VEON, Terzioglu said that an appeal has been filed and expressed hope that the seizure will be lifted and this will help reassure international investors. He emphasized that VEON owns all 100% of Kyivstar’s shares, and Letter One, according to his information, has distanced itself from co-owners Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who are subject to international sanctions, and is not subject to such international sanctions.
According to VEON’s CEO, the seizure of Kyivstar shares does not affect the company’s operations, ability to operate and maintain its networks. “The arrest only affects the ability to receive dividends or transfer shares from one owner to another,” Terizoglu explained.
Earlier it was reported that the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv reduced the package of seized shares of Kyivstar from 99.994654% to 47.85%, and the seized share of LifeSell LLC from 100% to 19.8% as part of interim measures in the case against Alfa Group co-owner Mikhail Fridman opened in late September. He made such changes to the earlier ruling of October 4 based on a motion filed by a prosecutor from the Prosecutor General’s Office due to a typo. As for the rest of the seized assets, the court confirmed the accuracy of their original description. In particular, 100% of the corporate rights of three Kyivstar-affiliated companies, including Kyivstar.Tech, Helsi, and the Ukrainian Tower Company, remain under arrest.
On December 4-5, CEO of Astarta Agro Holding Viktor Ivanchyk bought 0.033% of the company’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) for a total of PLN238.37 thousand (about $59.27 thousand at the current exchange rate).
According to information on the Warsaw Stock Exchange’s website, the previous time it acquired 0.113% of the shares on June 22-26 at a price of PLN28.8-PLN29.0 per share.
This time, Albacon Ventures Ltd, owned by Ivanczyk, bought 8.32 thousand shares at PLN28.65 per share in 94 transactions on December 4-5.
At the last shareholders’ meeting on May 24 this year, Ivanczyk’s 40% stake gave him 52.93% of the votes.
The latest report as of November this year indicated that the Ivanchyk family owns 40.11%, Fairfax Financial Holdings – 29.91%, Kopernik Global Investors – 2.64%, Heptagon Capital – 1.88%, and the share of any other shareholder does not exceed 0.18%.
According to the WSE, Astarta’s share price is currently PLN28.4, which is 1.22% lower than at the opening.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
“Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 9.8% to EUR55.97 million in the first nine months of this year, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR392.00 million.
The Supervisory Board (SB) of Garant Metiz Invest PrJSC (Dnipro) has dismissed Oleg Kovtonyuk as Chairman of the Board and CEO based on his application, and appointed Oksana Fenik as the company’s commercial director for a five-year term.
According to the company’s announcement in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the personnel issues were considered at a meeting of the SB on July 6 this year.
It is specified that Kovtoniuk’s powers as Chairman of the Board and CEO will be terminated on July 6, and Fenik will take office on July 7.
Kovtoniuk has been CEO since August 12, 2021, and was appointed for 5 years.
Garant Metiz Invest LLC was founded in 2005, and later its founders decided to reorganize it into a CJSC and then into a PrJSC. The design capacity of the hardware plant is 40 thousand tons of products per year. The company was established on the industrial facilities of the former Electrogaz plant, whose premises were purchased during the reorganization.
According to the first quarter of 2023, Flobes LLC owns 50% of the shares in the company, and Garant Investments Ltd. (both based in Dnipro) also owns 50%.
The authorized capital of the PrJSC is UAH 1.982 million, the nominal value of the share is UAH 1.
