The Supervisory Board of Ukrainian Joint Stock Insurance Company ASKA-Zhizn (Kiev) on May 17 terminated the powers of the general director Elena Pantova due to the end of her employment contract, according to the insurer’s information published in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSCSML).
It was also specified that by the decision of the Supervisory Board, Lyudmila Berkovich was appointed Acting General Director of the company, who during the last five years held the position – member of the Supervisory Board of “IC ASKA DS”, Deputy General Director for finance of “UASKA ASKA” and Deputy General Director for finance of “UASKA-Life”.
As it was reported, in January-March, 2023 “ASKA-Life” collected net and gross insurance premiums for the amount of 44,968 million UAH, which is by 49,2% less than in the same period of 2022.
The company has paid out UAH 4,310 mln to customers during the three months of 2023, which is 57,3% more than in the same period a year earlier.
The administrative costs of the company during the reporting period decreased by 8.8% going to UAH 2.9 mln, and the expenses on sales increased 2.4 times going to UAH 39.010 mln.
The financial loss from operations in the first quarter of 2023 decreased to UAH 9.027 mln from UAH 15.073 mln in the first quarter of 2022.
The net loss has amounted to UAH 6,5 mln that is 2,2 times less than in January-March 2022.
ASKA-Life registered in 2003, specializing in life insurance.
As reported on its website, as of Q4 2022, 55,6667% of the company is owned by SCM Finance Limited, Alexander Sosis – 44,3333%.
The supervisory board of the Kametstal plant of the Metinvest mining and smelting group, which was created on the capacities of Dniprovsky Iron and Steel Works (DMK, Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk Region), has replaced the general director of the company.
According to the official information of the company, the general council dismissed Dmytro Lyppa from the position of the general director by his own will as of December 24 this year.
It is specified that the personnel decision was made on December 14, 2022.
Alexander Tretyakov, who previously served as acting general director of Zaporizhkoks and first deputy general director and director of production at Zaporizhstal, was appointed acting general director.
In its turn, the Zaporizhkoks board of directors instead of Tretyakov entrusted Alexander Bekhter, who previously held the positions of deputy head of the production and technical department and director of production at the same plant, with the duties of general director.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies that manages assets in each link of the production chain, from iron ore and coal mining and coke production to semi-finished and finished steel production, pipe rolling and coil production and other high value-added products. The Group consists of mining and metallurgical enterprises located in Ukraine, Europe and the USA and has a sales network covering all key global markets.
The main shareholders of Metinvest are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of Metinvest group.
PJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine” welcomes the actions of the Ukrainian authorities to restore the economy, improve the investment climate and business conditions, however, the company said that over the past few months it has been facing numerous unfounded claims from the authorities.
“Due to the stoppage of production in Ukraine, we refocused on imports and immediately faced more than a week of downtime of our products at customs due to bureaucratic procedures for calculating VAT on tobacco products. Then the work of our warehouses was paralyzed by actual inspections of the STS with baseless accusations. And any delay in the sale of our products means lost sales and, accordingly, unpaid excise tax, the volume of which can reach UAH 100 million daily,” said Maxim Barabash, CEO of the company, in a blitz interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that such delays are especially strange in the context of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, when the country needs money due to a huge state budget deficit.
According to the company’s general director, representatives of the Economic Security Bureau (BEB) came to the Philip Morris warehouse in Kyiv on June 24 to conduct a search – an urgent investigative action that lasted several days, including during air raids.
“In our opinion, there were no legal grounds for a search of the BEB representatives. As a result, a batch of foreign-labeled cigarettes was temporarily seized. This product was produced before the war for the Japanese market and, due to obvious circumstances, cannot be exported. The product is legal stored in warehouses,” Barabash explained.
The head emphasized that such a situation interferes with the normal operation of the business and leads to a shortfall of millions of hryvnias in taxes by the state, and the company incurs significant time costs “for explaining obvious things.”
Another issue that the company is now solving is the disappearance of a large batch of cigarettes from the customs warehouse at one of the airports in Ukraine, which Philip Morris planned to export to Japan. Now the company finds out under what circumstances and where they disappeared, and does not exclude that the stolen cigarettes could already be on sale in the shadow market.
“In order for investors to be interested in participating in the recovery programs announced in Lugano, the authorities must take concrete steps so that businesses do not have to deal with such actions of government officials that we constantly face,” Barabash stated.
Philip Morris International, which includes PJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine”, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tobacco products.
The company has been operating in Ukraine for more than 20 years, owns a factory in the Kharkiv region. About 1.3 thousand people worked at the company’s enterprises before the Russian invasion. Before the war, the factory was an export hub for more than 20 countries, in particular such large markets as Japan and Egypt.
PJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine” in 2020 increased its net profit by 5% compared to 2019 – up to UAH 2.73 billion, assets increased by 18% over the year – up to UAH 11.51 billion, and retained earnings – by 55, 5%, up to UAH 7.79 billion.
The full flash interview with Maxim Barabash will be published on the main page of the website of the Interfax-Ukraine agency www.interfax.com.ua
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi intends to arrive in Kyiv, Head of state-owned enterprise Energoatom Petro Kotin has said.
“But the date of the visit has not yet been set,” Kotin said on the air of the #UArazom (together) unity marathon.
He also said that Ukraine needs more active actions from the IAEA, in addition to the concerns expressed.
