Non-resident individuals will be able to buy Ukrainian government bonds with maturities from three months to three years on the online government bond trading platform ICU Trade, ICU Financial Group has announced.
“At present, non-residents can register remotely with a broker and buy and sell domestic government bonds in the same way as Ukrainian citizens do now,” the group said in a press release on Monday.
It is specified that residents of Russia and Belarus will be denied access to the service.
“The purchase and storage of securities is free of charge. Yields for non-residents will be the same as for domestic clients. There are no income taxes on government bonds in Ukraine,” the statement said.
The company clarified to Interfax-Ukraine that non-residents already have the opportunity to repatriate foreign currency funds invested in government bonds.
ICU recalled that numerous requests from foreign citizens to buy Ukrainian government bonds began to arrive after the launch of trading at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
According to the company, at that time there was no such opportunity in Ukraine due to the lack of the regulatory framework and technical solutions necessary for these operations, which have been found today thanks to the joint work of market participants.
“We consider this project to be a volunteer project. It is costly and we do not make money on it, but we consider it fundamentally important to help the country. We are grateful to the NBU, the NSSMC, and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine for their joint efforts, which made it possible to provide such services to foreign investors at the technological and regulatory level,” the company said in a press release.
According to the ICU, there is already a small queue of citizens of the United States, Israel, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada who want to buy Ukrainian bonds.
“These are both representatives of the diasporas and foreigners not connected with Ukraine who share the values of our country. We will work to increase the number of such investors in Ukraine,” emphasized Konstantin Stetsenko, co-founder of ICU Group.
The company noted that the registration of investors from some countries may take longer due to differences in the legal framework and the peculiarities of the work of mobile operators in different countries, and therefore asked to “treat such cases with understanding” and said that it would help each client to formalize everything properly.
ICU Group is an independent financial group that provides brokerage, asset management and private equity services. The group is also engaged in venture capital and fintech investments. ICU focuses on emerging markets around the world. The group manages assets of more than $500 million. According to the group, it has been the largest broker of government bonds in Ukraine for more than 15 years.
ICU is co-owned by Makar Paseniuk and Konstantin Stetsenko.
According to the NBU, as of September 18, non-resident legal entities held UAH 47.85 billion worth of government bonds, while resident individuals held UAH 46.14 billion, with a total volume of government bonds in circulation of UAH 1 trillion 266.65 billion.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission has admitted green bonds of NPC Ukrenergo (ISIN 2404309754) to circulation in Ukraine, the press service of the regulator said on Friday.
According to the data on the website of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the ICU investment group initiated the entry of the securities; the placement will take place on the Perspektiva stock exchange.
Thus, there are already 91 foreign securities admitted to trading in Ukraine.
As reported, on November 3, NPC Ukrenergo announced the successful placement of five-year eurobonds secured by government guarantees in the amount of $825 million (equivalent to UAH 21.69 billion) with a yield of 6.875%. The order book was almost three times oversubscribed.
The placement was organized by BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Ukreximbank, and Ukrenergo’s financial and sustainable development advisors were Rothschild & Cie with FinPoint and BNP Paribas, respectively.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested $75 million in green bonds of Ukrenergo.
Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power transmission lines, as well as centralized dispatching of the country’s Integrated Power System.
ICU Investment Group has taken over the management of the Turbota open non-state pension fund and is positioning it as a 100% foreign currency pension fund, the investment group’s press service said.
“Along with active growth of the number of participants in non-state pension programs, their interest in investing in foreign exchange assets is increasing. This is the strategy we are introducing for the first time on the Ukrainian non-state pension fund market,” Head of Local Asset Management at ICU Hryhoriy Ovcharenko said.
According to the press release, at the initiative of ICU, the composition of the independent supervisory board of the open non-state pension fund was renewed. It was headed by member of the supervisory board of Nova Poshta, former Board Chairman of Pravex Bank Taras Kyrychenko. Apart from Ovcharenko, the fund’s board also includes Board Chairman of the insurance company ARX Andriy Peretiazhko, representatives of the asset management company UpInvest – Head of the UpInvest regulatory requirements department Serhiy Kyrpychov and Head of the administration department Anna Tarasenko, as well as Head of the investment sales department of the asset management company ICU Maryna Petrenko.
The direct management company of the open non-state pension fund will be an asset management company belonging to ICU Group – the administrator of pension funds UpInvest.
Turbota open non-state pension fund began its work in 2009. The founders of the fund are AMC Art-Capital Management LLC and Investment Financial Company Art-Capital LLC.
According to the financial statements, the net asset value of Turbota at the end of September 2021 amounted to UAH 438,000, the volume of pension contributions for nine months – UAH 87,000, payments – UAH 75,000, investment loss – UAH 6,500, and the increase in the net unit value of pension assets – 4.9%.
According to the data on the official website UpInvest, almost 76,000 pension accounts are under its administration, and the total value of assets under management exceeds UAH 556 million. The company estimates its share of the NPF asset management market at 28%.
ICU Group is an independent financial group providing brokerage, asset management and private equity services. The group is also involved in venture capital investments. The geography of ICU interests is emerging markets around the world.
The National Securities and Stock Market Commission on September 15 registered the issue of investment certificates of the closed-end unit investment fund ICU Eurobond Fund with a seed capital of UAH 500 million.
The nominal value of one investment certificate is UAH 1,000. The volume of the issue is 500,000 certificates, the National Commission said.
ICU Investment Group, Founded in 2006 by senior investment professionals from ING, is an independent financial group providing brokerage, asset and private equity management services and specializing in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. ICU currently manages over $500 million in assets. ICU is Ukraine’s leading asset manager.
The owners and partners of the group are Makar Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko.
ICU, ICU INVESTMENT GROUP, NATIONAL SECURITIES, STOCK MARKET COMMISSION
ICU Group will allocate $1 million for the development of Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) as part of the continuation of the program to support education in Ukraine, ICU said in a release.
“In 2016, we were one of the first in Ukrainian business who believed in the mission of KSE and the real desire of the management to realize it. The school is intended to become an intellectual basis for a strong and innovative economy of Ukraine, and it is important for us to direct funds to create such a basis. We have been doing this for five years, and we see a clear result of the efforts of the school – the number of students has grown 10 times, and the list of curricula covers almost all trends in the development of modern economic thought,” the founder of ICU and co-chairman of the board of directors of KSE, Makar Paseniuk, said.
President of Kyiv School of Economics Tymofiy Mylovanov noted the systematic cooperation between the KSE and ICU.
“ICU is one of the first strategic partners of Kyiv School of Economics. KSE and ICU are primarily partners who together generated the most daring ideas and implemented them together: setting a new quality bar for themselves and for others. Ukrainian Financial Forum 2018 and 2019, Ukraine Economy Week are our common and favorite projects aimed at improving the quality of economic and business discussions,” he said.
ICU is one of the founders and sponsors of the Center for Journalism at KSE, where Ukrainian media journalists receive necessary knowledge in the field of economics and finance. Now KSE is opening two modern English-language bachelor’s programs: “Economics and Big-Data” and “IT and Business Analysis.” This became possible, among other things, thanks to the partnership and financial support of ICU.
“I am sure that such a significant investment in the development of education in Ukraine will become a bright precedent for domestic businesses – the flagships of the Ukrainian economy,” he added.
ICU Group is an independent financial group, founded in 2006 by specialists from ING, providing brokerage services, asset and private equity management services, as well as venture capital investments. The group specializes in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
ICU Investment Group has improved its forecast for the fall of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) to 5% from 5.7%, head of the group’s macroeconomic research department Serhiy Nikolaichuk has said.
“In total, the economy will contract by about 5% in 2020 (compared to 5.7% in our September forecast). This will lead to a decrease in GDP below the level of 2018, but compared to most other countries, the Ukrainian economy will demonstrate better dynamics,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to the investment group, GDP growth in Ukraine in the fourth quarter of this year and in the first quarter of the next (to the previous quarters) will be “slow and rather shaky.”
“However, the pace will still be positive,” the expert specified.
He also noted that the impetus from the “opening of the economy” after tough quarantine restrictions, which affected the decline in GDP fall in the previous quarters, has exhausted, so further growth will require other drivers.
“The new outbreak of COVID-19 continues to gain momentum, indicating that the recently introduced weekend quarantine could be replaced with tougher measures across the country,” Nikolaichuk added.
At the same time, he noted that against the background of the return of income to the “pre-epidemic trajectory,” active growth of private consumption continues, and the weakness of private investment is compensated by the ongoing projects of Big Construction.
Nikolaichuk added that ICU expects a significant fiscal impulse for the economy at the end of 2020, despite the fact that it will be lower than provided for in the law on the national budget.
