Shareholders of the VUSO insurance company completed the purchase of UASK ASKA (operating under the ASKA brand) in order to create a major player in the insurance market with Ukrainian capital.
“Despite the war and what seems like a bad time to invest, we are determined to see our goal of merging the two companies through. We believe in the victory of Ukraine and its future! We hope that Ukrainians and Ukrainian enterprises will continue to use the services of VUSO as a large Ukrainian company. It is symbolic for us that the date of the transaction, as well as the date of the beginning of the association, is August 24 – the Independence Day of our country!
After the transaction is completed, it is planned to merge UASK ASKA and IC VUSO under a single VUSO brand by the end of 2022.
The future merger will increase VUSO’s presence in the corporate insurance segment through ASKA’s longstanding relationships with large corporate clients.
The amount and terms of the deal were not disclosed.
VUSO insurance company has been operating on the Ukrainian market since 2001. According to Insurance TOP, its assets as of December 31, 2022 amounted to UAH 940.5 million, insurance premiums for 12 months of 2021 – UAH 1.719 billion (8th place in the ranking of insurers). Holds 50 licenses: 33 for voluntary and 17 for compulsory types of insurance. The company specializes in motor, medical and travel insurance for private and corporate clients, has more than 30 representative offices throughout Ukraine. He is a Member of the ITIBU (since 07/01/22 – Full Member), the Nuclear Pool, a participant in the Direct Settlement project. Member of the National Association of Insurers of Ukraine. The company has been assigned a financial stability (reliability) rating of uaАА. The shareholders of VUSO are the Altitude Fund, the ultimate beneficiaries are Mikhail Nazarchuk and Alexey Shuba.
UASK ASKA is the first private insurance company that appeared in independent Ukraine and has been operating for over 30 years. It was included in the portfolio of the international investment company SCM.
At the beginning of 2022, ASKA had 2,900 corporate and more than 200,000 private clients throughout Ukraine. He is a member of MTIBU, one of the founders of the Nuclear Pool. The insurer has a license to carry out insurance activities for compulsory insurance of civil liability of car owners (including the Green Card). During its work, ASKA has repeatedly made the largest payments in the history of Ukrainian insurance.
On September 27, shareholders of IC Veltliner (Kyiv) will consider granting the Supervisory Board the authority to give consent to transfer assistance for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine within 15% of the amount of actually collected insurance payments for voluntary personal types of insurance for the period from September 27, 2022 until the date of decision by the Supervisory Board.
According to the agenda of the meeting of shareholders, published in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, shareholders also plan not to distribute profit for 2021, not to accrue or pay dividends to shareholders, to make deductions to the reserve fund of 5% of profit for the year in the amount of UAH 73.9 thousand hryvnia and allocate UAH 1.404 million for current expenses of economic activity.
As reported, IC Veltliner has been the legal successor of PJSC European World Insurance House since 2012. It has 28 licenses for voluntary and compulsory types of insurance, and offers customers more than 100 insurance products.
From the second half of 2021, the teams of IC Veltliner were joined by the teams of three other insurance companies, of which one insurer left the market of its own accord, another was sold and changed its specialization.
The Expert Rating rating agency has suspended the financial stability rating of the insurance company Krayina (Kyiv) at the company’s request, the RA website reports. As reported, Expert Rating updated the company’s rating at the level of “uaAA +” on the national scale in the first quarter of 2022.
During this period, the gross insurance premiums of IC “Kraina” in January-March 2022 amounted to UAH 125.2 million, which is 17.7% less compared to the same period in 2021.
In the first quarter of 2022, IC “Kraina” made UAH 60.28 million of insurance payments and indemnities, which is 31.32% less than in the same period of 2021. At the same time, the level of payments in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021 decreased by 9.55 p.p. up to 48.16%.
The equity capital of the company as of March 31, 2022 increased by 3.65% to UAH 155.57 million, while its gross liabilities increased by 5.63% to UAH 181.45 million. As a result, the level of coverage of the insurer’s liabilities by equity capital decreased by 1.64 percentage points. – up to 85.74%.
In the period under review, the volume of cash and cash equivalents of the company decreased by 38.61% and amounted to UAH 62.12 million, while the indicator of coverage of the insurer’s obligations with cash decreased by 22.99 percentage points. and amounted to 34.24%.
IC “Kraina” has been operating in the insurance market of Ukraine since 1994. It has licenses for 23 types of insurance.
TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) in 2021 concluded 2.518 million insurance contracts, of which 1.223 million were for compulsory types of insurance (up 8%), 1.295 million were voluntary (up 13%).
According to the website of the insurer, TAS signed 2.357 million contracts with insured individuals, which is 10% more than the corresponding figure for 2020. Some 12% more contracts were concluded with clients – legal entities – than a year before last, in total, 160,000 of them were issued.
According to the results of the reporting period, the first place in the company’s portfolio was traditionally occupied by OSAGO, under which 1.050 million policies were issued (up 6%), KASKO – 56,896 (up 17%).
The company reports that in 2021, comprehensive insurance contracts were in consistently high demand among consumers, so 346,496 Povny Avtozakhyst (Full Car Protection) contracts and 15,794 Povny Zhytlozakhyst (Full Housing Protection) contracts were concluded. In turn, 127,356 travel insurance policies were issued during the year.
In total, more than 1.217 million customers entrusted their insurance coverage to TAS Insurance Group last year.
As reported, in 2021, the volume of revenues of TAS reached UAH 2.45 billion. In particular, under OSAGO policies, the insurer collected UAH 857.49 million, while UAH 568.36 million under KASKO agreements, UAH 322.81 million of insurance premiums under Green Card policies.
TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) in December 2021 paid UAH 102.86 million under insurance contracts, which is 8% more than the amount of compensation paid by the insurer in December of the year before last, according to the company’s website.
Thus, according to the policies of compulsory insurance of car owners’ civil liability, TAS reimbursed the victims UAH 39.13 million, which is 38.04% of the company’s total payments for the month.
The second place in the December portfolio of payments of the insurer with a share of 25.54% is occupied by KASKO with UAH 26.27 million.
Under Green Card policies, the company paid UAH 16.34 million, which is 15.89% of the company’s total payments for the month and is 25.9% higher than the corresponding figure for the reporting period of 2020.
The share of voluntary medical insurance in the insurer’s payout portfolio in December amounted to 15.5%, or UAH 15.94 million.
At the same time, under property insurance contracts, the company reimbursed UAH 2.42 million, which is 4.4 times more than the corresponding figure for December of the year before last.
Under other insurance contracts, TAS paid compensation in the amount of UAH 2.76 million for the 12th month of last year.
Since January 2022, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has been coordinating the positions of the chairman of the board (sole executive body), members of the board, chief accountant, chairman and members of the supervisory board of insurance companies from January 2022 in accordance with license terms, the regulator has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Persons in these positions do not require the appropriate approval before the expiration of their tenure,” the NBU said in a statement.
In addition, the law on insurance from January 1, 2024 introduces separate requirements for the management of the insurer, namely the chairman of the supervisory board, his deputies and members of the supervisory board, the chairman of the board (director general), his deputies and members of the board (directorate), chief accountant. In relation to these persons, as well as the chief risk manager, chief compliance manager, chief internal auditor and responsible actuary of the insurer, qualification requirements for business reputation and professional suitability are established. In respect of the independent director of the insurer, independence requirements are also introduced. Qualification requirements will be determined at the level of the normative legal act of the NBU.
The chief risk manager, chief compliance manager, chief internal auditor, responsible actuary, as well as individual heads of the insurer – the chairman of the board (director general), chief accountant, chairman and members of the supervisory board – will take office after receiving the approval of the National Bank. With regard to other managers, insurers will be able to either obtain approval before they are appointed/elected to a position, or submit documents for approval to the NBU within one month after appointment/election to the position.
In addition, the law on insurance introduces requirements for the collective suitability of the supervisory board and collegiate executive body of the insurer, which will also be effective from January 1, 2024. Collective suitability means that the members of the supervisory board or executive body have the general/cumulative knowledge, skills, professional and managerial experience to the extent necessary to understand all aspects of the insurer’s activities, adequately assess risks, make informed decisions, etc.
The National Bank will establish the requirements and procedure for assessing the collective suitability of the supervisory board and the executive body. The NBU will carry out an appropriate assessment taking into account the size of the insurer, the volumes and types of operations carried out by it, the organizational structure, the risk profile, etc. The regulator also determines the existence of collective suitability when considering the package of documents for obtaining a license. Based on the results of such an assessment, the National Bank will have the right to demand changes in the personal composition of the supervisory board or the executive body.
