Business news from Ukraine

BCPP plans to obtain license to produce baby food and dietary food products

PJSC SIC Borshchahivskiy Chemical Pharmaceutical Plant (BCPP, Kyiv) may obtain a license to produce baby food and dietary food products.

As the company reported in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the issue of obtaining such licenses at the initiative of shareholder Aletber Limited (Cyprus) is on the agenda of the shareholders’ meeting to be held on April 30.

By the end of 2023, BCPP increased production by 17.6% compared to 2022 to almost UAH 1.866 billion, but in physical terms it decreased by 3.3% to 34.8 million packs. At the same time, 40.3 million packs were sold last year, which is 7.8% less than in 2022, while total sales increased by 16.5% to UAH 1.806 billion.

In 2023, BCPP’s net profit increased by 3.38% compared to 2022 to UAH 262.863 million.

As of the first quarter of 2023, 31.8% of BCPP shares were owned by the pharmaceutical company Pharmaceutical Firm “Darnitsa” (Kyiv).

According to the Opendatabot system, the ultimate beneficiaries of BCPP are also the beneficiary of the pharmaceutical company “Darnitsa” Hlib Zagoriy, Yevhen Sova and Tetiana Artemenko.

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National Bank suspended license of “European Insurance Group”

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has applied a measure of influence in the form of temporary suspension of licenses to non-life insurer “European Insurance Group” (EIG, Kharkiv) in connection with non-submission of reports since the end of last year.

As reported by the central bank on Tuesday, the Committee for Supervision and Regulation of Non-banking Financial Services Markets has set a deadline for the insurer to eliminate violations until September 26, 2023.

According to the National Bank, for the first nine months of 2022, the insurer received 2542.2 thousand UAH of insurance premiums and made 39.4 thousand UAH of insurance payments, while the company’s market share for the period amounted to 0.01%.

As reported, on October 8, 2021 the NBU has agreed to Ivan Volkov indirect ownership of 99,998% of shares of ALC “European Insurance Group”. Earlier, on July 6, 2021, a trustee was appointed to this company to manage 99.998% of the insurer’s shares, the ownership of which was indirectly through LLC “Victori-21”.

UGG was registered by the National Commission for Financial Services in August 2016. The authorized capital of the company amounts to UAH 30 mln.

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National Bank has canceled license of financial company Rialto

On July 10, the National Bank of Ukraine has annulled the license of Financial Company Rialto LLC (Kiev) to provide financial services, namely, to lend money, including on financial credit terms.

As reported on the website of the regulator, following the results of an unscheduled inspection on the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services found violation of the financial company of the requirements of current legislation, in particular, the laws of Ukraine “On financial services and state regulation of financial services markets”, “On consumer credit”, as well as a number of regulations of the National Bank of Ukraine.

Rialto FC was registered in June 2020. The authorized capital is UAH 6 mln.

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National Bank stopped license of insurer “Kyivska Rus”

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on May 8 applied to Kyivska Rus Insurance Company PJSC a sanction in the form of temporary suspension of its license to provide financial services in insurance due to failure to submit reports for the first half of 2022 and for 2022, as well as an actuarial report for 2022.
According to the regulator’s website, the company also failed to submit a report on corporate governance and information on the key risks and the results of stress testing for 2022, and failed to provide information and documents requested by the NBU.
The insurer has been set a deadline for elimination of violations till June 8, 2023.
Private JSC “IC “Kyivska Rus” performs activity in voluntary and obligatory types of insurance, other than life insurance.
According to the accounts of the insurer for nine months of 2022 the amount of insurance payments totaled 85,4 mln UAH of which 76,9 mln UAH were paid out by reinsurers. The insurer made no payments during the above period.

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NBU revoked license of insurer “Universal policy”

On May 5, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has cancelled the licenses of Universal Policy Insurance Company (Kyiv) due to repeated violations of license conditions during the year.
According to the regulator’s website, the company fails to comply with mandatory financial ratios (solvency and capital adequacy ratio and risk operations ratio).
Earlier it was reported that “IC “Universalniy Polis” was subjected to a temporary suspension of the license on November 11, 2022.
The NBU notes that according to accounts for 2022, the amount of insurance premiums collected by the company was UAH 72 million (90% of them – from reinsurers), insurance payments – UAH 36 million. The market share of the company according to the results of 2022 is 0,2%.
According to reports for the first quarter of 2023, “IC “Universal polis” has not received insurance premiums.
IC “Universal polis”, registered in 2001, specializes in providing services in the field of risk insurance.

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National Bank revokes license of Ayboks Bank

The Board of the National Bank of Ukraine has decided to revoke the banking license and liquidate Ayboks Bank, the 37th largest bank in terms of assets out of 66 Ukrainian banks, starting from March 7, 2023, due to a number of violations, including assistance in holding a sports poker tournament and insufficient financial monitoring of clients even after the regulator’s warning.
“The share of the financial institution amounted to 0.1% of the assets of solvent banks, so its withdrawal from the market will not affect the stability of the Ukrainian banking sector,” the NBU said in a statement on its website.
In particular, during the on-site supervision, the regulator found that seven legal entities, for which the bank has established a high level of risk, received funds for the provision of services through the payment acceptance point, in particular for organizing and holding esports and sports poker tournaments, in the total amount of more than UAH 3.5 billion from February 21 to December 1, 2022.
The NBU pointed out that the clients were newly established and only started carrying out relevant activities in 2022, their websites were launched a few days later or on the day of establishing relations with the bank, there were no expenses/information on the clients’ advertising activities to attract tournament participants, but the volume of transactions in the first days amounted to millions of hryvnias.
In addition, the clients had signs of being related to each other, but Ayboks Bank did not detect them, and identified the risk criteria only partially, generally failing to take the necessary enhanced due diligence measures.
“According to the information provided by the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries, as well as the Federation of Esports of Ukraine, which has the status of a national sports federation in the sport of esports, the clients’ activities include all elements of organizing and conducting gambling, in particular poker, on the Internet and/or bookmaking activities,” the NBU said.
The regulator also reminded that it has already fined Ayboks Bank UAH 10 million for violating the requirements of the legislation in the field of prevention and counteraction to legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but these violations continued. In addition, the NBU has twice suspended certain types of transactions conducted by the bank and removed a bank official from office.
The NBU assured that each depositor of the bank will receive compensation from the Deposit Guarantee Fund in the full amount of the deposit, including interest accrued as of the end of the day preceding the day of the start of the bank’s withdrawal from the market.
As reported, in early February, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zheleznyak accused nine banks, including Ukrgasbank and Ayboks Bank, of helping the gambling business conceal up to UAH 10 billion in turnover per month. He claimed that these banks provided a service for misdirection (change of payment purpose – IF) and withdrawal of this money: they transferred money from a player to a casino account under the guise of payment for “advertising services” or similar services.
“In other words, it was a fairly open service for the market, when the bank was well aware of what it was doing and the damage it was causing to the budget. And, of course, it charged good fees for this (3-3.5% for acquiring). Plus various offers of withdrawal to cash, USDT, etc.”, Zheleznyak said.
The MP appealed to the National Bank to impose large fines on Ukrgasbank and apply the most severe measures to Ayboks Bank. In early March, the NBU fined state-owned Ukrgasbank UAH 64.6 million.
JSC Ayboks Bank (formerly Agrocombank) was founded in 1993. As of January 31, 2023, the bank’s largest shareholders were Vladimir Drobot (73.93%) and Alena Shevtsova (24.98%).
According to the NBU, as of January 1, 2023, in terms of total assets, Ayboks Bank ranked 44th (UAH 4.467 billion) among 67 banks operating in the country. The bank ended the previous year with a net profit of UAH 598.3 million and planned to allocate 92.6% of it to increase its authorized capital.

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