The number of U.S. company bankruptcies in January-July 2023 reached 402, the highest number for the period since 2010, excluding the “covid” 2020, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
“High interest rates and a troubled operating environment continue to drive the collapse of U.S. companies,” the analysts wrote.
The number of bankruptcies in the seven-month period is nearly double the rate for the same period in 2022. In January-July 2020, the figure was 407 as the coronavirus pandemic caused many firms to close.
In July alone, 64 companies filed for bankruptcy in the U.S., the highest since March’s 70. The largest of them was the aircraft leasing company Voyager Aviation Holdings LLC, which owes more than $1 billion. In June, there were four companies with debts of more than $1 billion that filed for bankruptcy.
Since the beginning of the Russian military aggression in Ukraine, the insurance market of Ukraine has decreased by five participants in the non-life segment, Yulia Khristolyubskaya, deputy head of the department for supervision of insurance companies of the National Bank of Ukraine, said at a meeting with insurance market participants on Thursday.
According to her, of these insurers, three left the market after the cancellation of licenses as a measure of influence, one – upon application, and one insurer, which was registered in January 2022 and did not receive a single license.
“We do not observe any rapid exit of companies from the market as a result of supervisory actions of the NBU or at the request of insurers. The market is stable and continues to work in most of its participants,” Khristolyubskaya said.
She also clarified that as of September 22, 2022, licenses for insurance activities were temporarily suspended for three companies, and they were canceled for one.
According to her, as of September 1, 2022, 140 insurance companies were registered in the State Register of Financial Institutions, 13 of them specialize in life insurance.
With reference to NBU data, Khristolyubskaya also said that 91% of insurers filed reports for 2021, 96% of those entered into the State Register for the first half of 2022, and 97% of companies included in the state register for the first quarter.
At the same time, she stressed that of all segments of the non-banking financial market, the insurance market has the highest level of reporting discipline. This is a consequence of the constant communication of the supervisor with problematic insurance companies by sending requests for information disclosure and applying adequate enforcement measures.
Elon Musk and his companies Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) filed a $258 billion lawsuit in connection with their promotion of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, reports Bloomberg.
The plaintiff – Keith Johnson – alleges that Musk and his companies created a fraudulent scheme to inflate the value of Dogecoin.
“Defendants falsely claimed that the Dogecoin cryptocurrency is a prudent investment even though it has no value at all,” the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court says.
Johnson, who claims he “lost money because of the crypto pyramid created by the defendants,” expects his lawsuit to become a class action, with other people who have also lost money trading Dogecoin since April 2019 joining him.
In addition to damages, he demands that the court prohibit Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin.
The cryptocurrency, created in 2013 in honor of the Internet meme Doge with a Shiba Inu dog, is trading on Thursday at $0.057, since the beginning of this year its rate has fallen by 67%. Last year, the value of Dogecoin rose to $0.74.
Musk has previously stated that Tesla and SpaceX will sell their merchandise for Dogecoin. In January, he suggested that McDonald’s start accepting the cryptocurrency, tweeting that he would “eat the Happy Meal on TV if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin.”
The war in Ukraine has dramatically changed the geopolitical landscape in Europe. Ruukki Construction fully condemns Russia’s attack and the hostility towards Ukraine and its people.
Safety of our employees, customers and partners is of the highest importance at Ruukki. All of Ruukki’s operations in Ukraine have been suspended and all shipments and sales to Russia and Belarus have been discontinued. For some time, this will also affect the delivery capabilities of some product groups.
Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and our colleagues, customers and partners, who are in the middle of the war. Ruukki and our employees in various countries help our Ukrainian colleagues and their families by providing financial support and resettlement assistance. We are grateful to all those who work tirelessly to help the people of Ukraine.
SSAB supports Ukraine through UNHCR
As part of SSAB, Ruukki is donating to UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to support the people in Ukraine. UNHCR is present in the country with a structure already set up and has vast experience in rapid response, relief and refugee assistance, including people fleeing inside Ukraine.
Ruukki is constantly monitoring the development of the situation and taking any necessary actions to secure the safety of its people.
Ruukki has a factory in Kopyliv, some 50 kilometers west from Kyiv, and sales offices in some ten locations in Ukraine. Altogether, Ruukki has 73 employees in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, Ruukki products for commercial construction are represented by Rauta. Rauta Group was set up in 2014. Its core business is the design of constructions, supply and assembly of construction materials. The company has a license for the construction of facilities with medium (CC2) and high (CC3) consequences.
According to the unified state register, the owner of a 100% stake in the statutory capital of the company is Andriy Ozeychuk.
The Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine has excluded U.S.I. insurance company (Kyiv) and Kharkiv Municipal Insurance Company from the bureau’s associate members, the MTIBU told Interfax-Ukraine
The reason for this decision was the two-month indebtedness of the insurers to pay the guarantee fee to the MTIBU’s funds.
As reported, on April 20, 2021, the MTIBU reported that U.S.I. loses the right to conclude new contracts of compulsory insurance of civil liability of land vehicle owners (OSAGO), since a day earlier the NBU applied to it a measure in the form of suspension of licenses to carry out activities. For failure by the company to meet the solvency and capital adequacy standards, as well as the riskiness of operations, the formed insurance reserves were not placed in certain categories of eligible assets in full.
According to the data of the bureau, U.S.I. in 2020 entered into 87,050 contracts, premiums for which amounted to UAH 65.868 million, and paid to clients UAH 12.713 million.
Kharkiv Municipal Insurance Company in the first quarter of 2021 raised UAH 6.3 million of gross insurance premiums for OSAGO, paid UAH 1.33 million.
Over 14,000 Ukrainian companies annually export their products to the European Union, said Minister of Economy Ihor Petrashko.
“Over 14,000 companies annually export their products to the EU. And as of mid-January, 362 companies producing animal products have the right to export their products to the EU, which is subject to the most stringent requirements from the EU,” the press service of the ministry quoted Petrashko as saying in the release on Friday.
Reforms in technical regulation, public procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, as well as improving the product safety control system, customs, intellectual property protection system will allow to remove barriers to trade and provide more free access to the EU internal market for Ukrainian companies, the minister said.
“Today we see that we are ready to go further in our European aspirations,” Petrashko added.
