Business news from Ukraine

Results of second all-Ukrainian rating of artistic higher education institutions

The Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine has topped the nationwide ranking of artistic higher education institutions presented by the Institute of Sociological Research of the Kyiv National Economic University named after V. Hetman and the research company Active Group.

According to Oleksandr Poznyi, the coordinator of the project to create the rating, director of the Active Group research company, artistic higher education institutions are a very complex and important social institution that requires a specific methodology for studying.

“That’s why we combine the efforts of researchers, scholars and the best practices of the international community to improve our ranking of artistic higher education institutions,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

Pozniy emphasized that the main mission of the rating is to evaluate artistic institutions, as the existing ratings are designed for classical universities and do not take into account the unique aspects of art education and the specifics of evaluating art institutions. This, in turn, affects the objectivity and significance of these rankings in the context of art education, resulting in the underrepresentation of artistic institutions in the rankings.

“This is an important step in creating a transparent and objective system for evaluating artistic educational institutions, which allows us to adequately assess their contribution to the cultural development of the country. The ranking is designed to reflect the uniqueness of each artistic institution. We have applied comprehensive criteria that include teaching, research, international activity and financial stability,” said Yulia Gorbova, Director of the Institute of Sociological Research at the Kyiv National Economic University named after V. Hetman.

According to her, the methodology of this year’s ranking was improved as part of the joint research work of Active Group, the Institute of Higher Education and the Institute of Sociological Research of the Kyiv National Economic University named after V. Hetman. The study searched, systematized, and analyzed international and local general and subject (industry) rankings, with a special focus on the rankings of art education institutions and/or educational programs.

Art higher education institutions were analyzed by 45 parameters grouped into six blocks: “Teaching and Learning”, “Science and Research”, “Impact of Higher Education Institutions on Society Development”, “Internationalization”, “Institutional Reputation”, and “Financial Sustainability”. The share of each group of indicators and the weight of each individual criterion was determined based on the analysis of international experience and adjusted based on the results of an expert survey of representatives of the field of art education.

The authors of the ranking also used multi-criteria approaches to evaluating the activities of higher education institutions based on the processing of data that can be obtained from open sources and whose validity can be verified.

The sources of data for the ranking of artistic HEIs were: EDEBO, NAQA, Rector’s Report, Report on Scientific Activities, Estimates, Financial Statements of HEIs, HEI Website, Scopus, Web of Science, OpenAlex, Ukrainian National H-index Ranking, Google Scholar, Transparent Ranking, QS, UniRank, services for measuring brand reputation on the Internet and social networks.

As a result, the all-Ukrainian ranking of art universities for the 2023-2024 academic year was as follows:

Place in the ranking Result
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine 1 68,6
Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts 2 47,7
Kharkiv State Academy of Culture 3 43,8
Lviv National Academy of Arts 4 43,5
National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture 5 41,7
Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky 6 39,6
Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema and Television named after I.K. Karpenko-Kary 7 38
A.V. Nezhdanova Odesa National Music Academy 8 32,2
Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy 9 32,1
Mykhailo Boichuk Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design 10 27,2
National Academy of Management Personnel of Culture and Arts 11 27,1
Transcarpathian Academy of Arts 12 14,5
Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts 13 12,3

The researchers plan to continue this assessment of artistic institutions in order to track the dynamics of the development of Ukrainian art education institutions. The project team invites everyone to join the work on the development of the ranking, in particular, to improve the criteria for evaluating art institutions.

, , , , ,

S&P upgrades Turkey’s long-term ratings

The international rating agency S&P Global Ratings has upgraded Turkey’s long-term foreign and local currency ratings to “B+” from “B”.

The ratings outlook is “positive,” according to a press release from S&P.

“We expect that following the municipal elections held in the country, the Turkish authorities will continue to fight inflation aggressively through tightening monetary policy and gradual fiscal consolidation,” the agency’s experts say.

S&P predicts a decline in Turkey’s current account deficit over the next two years, along with weakening inflation and slowing dollarization of the economy. At the same time, the agency’s analysts believe that the country’s inflation rate will remain double-digit until early 2028.

The Central Bank of Turkey is likely to keep the key interest rate at the current level of 50% until the end of 2024, according to S&P.

“We could upgrade Turkey’s rating again if the country’s balance of payments continues to improve, inflation slows, and domestic savings in Turkish lira increase, allowing the country to rebuild its foreign exchange reserves,” the agency said in a press release.

S&P may change the outlook on Turkey’s ratings to stable if pressure on the country’s financial stability or state budget increases, for example, if the lira’s depreciation fails to stop, or if the authorities abandon inflation control measures.

Earlier, Experts Club and Maksim Urakin released a detailed video analysis of how economic and political life is developing in Turkey, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/SUqOMFI5HbI?si=uEIZZOORj65VElUQ

You can subscribe to the Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub

 

, , , ,

National Bank has ranked Ukrainian financial companies by revenue in 2023

Providing microcredits “Ukr Credit Finance” (TM “CreditKasa”) and “1 Safe Agency of necessary loans” (TM “MyCredit”) received the highest revenue among financial companies in 2023 – respectively UAH 3.12 billion and UAH 2.33 billion, the National Bank reported on its website.

The next three companies were formed by FC “E Groshi Kom”, “Miloan” and “Aventus Ukraine” (TM CreditPlus), whose revenue amounted from UAH 1.66 billion to UAH 1.46 billion.

According to the results of 2022, the leaders in terms of revenue were Finod LLC, engaged in currency exchange and deprived of all licenses by the National Bank in August 2023, and Novapey payment system, the data of which the National Bank stopped publishing after re-licensing of payment systems. The net income of these companies in 2022 amounted to respectively UAH 5.41 and 5.18 billion, while the places from third to fifth were taken by “Ukr Credit Finance”, “Aventus Ukraine” and “E Groshi com” with revenue from UAH 2.50 billion to UAH 1.27 billion.

According to the results of 2023, net income over UAH 1 billion was received by five more companies, of which only one is not from the microcredit market: the network of payment terminals FC “Kontraktovy Dom” (TM “Easypay”), which received UAH 1.38 billion.

Following with relatively close revenue figures – from UAH 1.33 billion to UAH 1.07 billion are Lineura Ukraine (TM “Credit7”), LLC “Maniveo Fast Financial Assistance” (Moneyveo), “Consumer Center” (TM “ShvidkoGroshi”) and “Advance Credit”, which demonstrated the highest growth dynamics by the previous year among the entire top ten – almost 37 times.

Among the leaders, the highest labor costs were incurred by “Consumer Center” – UAH 167.8 million, or 13.6% of revenue, while at “Avans Kredit” they amounted to UAH 29.3 million, or 1.8% of revenue.

According to the NBU data, in 2023 the profitability of companies improved dramatically: of the 40 largest representatives of the market, all, except for the State Mortgage Institution (SMI), ended the year with net profit, which totaled UAH 1.57 billion, while a year earlier there were 15 unprofitable companies.

The leader in net profit among financial companies for the past year was PJSC “Ukrfinzhytlo” – UAH 5.94 billion. It is followed by Ukr Credit Finance – UAH 202.7 million, the State Fund for Entrepreneurship Development, the operator of state support programs – UAH 177.7 million and Bizpozyka – UAH 177.1 million.

Slightly behind was Maniveo Fast Financial Aid, which earned UAH 167.7 mln, which allowed it to partially offset UAH 625.6 mln of the previous year’s net loss.

“Ukrfinzhytlo” also significantly outperformed all and in terms of assets – 60.89 billion UAH, owing the primacy in these two categories to its capitalization at the expense of government bonds.

Avior FC specializing in lending to agrarians is next – UAH 12.05 billion, whose revenue amounted to UAH 125.4 million last year.

The other eight companies in the top ten with assets from UAH 8.68 billion to UAH 3.55 billion had no revenue last year, while salary expenses and net profit were minimal.

, , ,

National Bank presented a new rating of payment systems

Payment system NovaPay remained the leader in transfers of funds within the country by system in 2023, but the share of transfers made through it again decreased – to 32% from 35% at the end of the first half of 2023 and 45% for May-December 2022, according to the data of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)

Payment system Moneycom LLC “Swift Garant” for the year increased its market share to 17.57% from 2.51% in May-December 2022, jumping from seventh place in the ranking to second place, which was previously occupied by the payment system LEO, whose registration was revoked by the NBU in March last year.

In the second half of 2023, Moneycom also surpassed Financial World Ukrainian Payment System LLC, increasing its market share by 5.2 percentage points.

PrivatBank’s PrivatMoney moved from sixth to third place in the ranking, with its market share increasing from 2.61% in 2022 to 15.98% by the end of 2023. In particular, PrivatMoney’s market share increased by 10.3 p. p. in the second half of last year. This allowed the payment systems City 24 FC Phoenix, Financial World and Postal Transfer of Ukrposhta JSC, whose registration was revoked by the National Bank in the second half of 2023, to be ahead of the payment systems City 24 FC Phoenix, Financial World and Postal Transfer of Ukrposhta JSC.

As a result, “Financial World” for the year fell in the rating from the third place to the fourth, although its share increased from 12.72% to 15.00% (with a slight decrease of 0.6 p.p. in the second half of the year).

Rounding out the top five with 5.35% is Platiservice payment system of the same name LLC, which jumped from eighth place in the ranking in 2022 (1.74%). The company managed to bypass City 24 FC Phoenix, which took the seventh position with a share of 4.16% in 2023, positioned between Postal Transfer (5.34%) and LEO (1.48%).

In terms of participants, the share of NovaPay decreased to 32.23% (from 45.46% in 2022 and 35.58% in the first half of 2023), from fifth to second position went Swift Guarant, whose share increased from 3.79% to 20.66%, from fourth to third – FC Kontraktovy Dom with an increase in share from 9.92% to 13.06%, from sixth to fourth – PrivatBank with an increase in share from 2.61% to 12.36%. Ukrposhta with 5.35% (12.22%), which was second a year earlier, rounds out the top five.

According to the NBU, 844.55 million domestic transfers worth UAH 728.01 billion (or $19.9 billion in equivalent) were made in 2023, the average amount of one transfer within Ukraine amounted to UAH 862. For comparison for May-December 2022 transfers were 446.35 million for 292.6 billion UAH.

It is indicated that as of January 1 of this year, activities in the country were carried out by 35 systems of funds transfer, of which – 26 resident and nine non-resident.

, ,

National Bank has released rating of top 20 insurers in Ukraine

The leaders of the Ukrainian insurance market in terms of collected net insurance premiums in January-September 2023 were: ARKS Insurance Company (UAH 2.378 billion), TAS Insurance Group (UAH 2.601 billion) and Unica Insurance Company (UAH 1.984 billion) (all based in Kyiv).

No. Name of IC Net premiums Growth rate Written premiums Growth rate Assets Reserves

1 ARX 2378 +6.8% 2760 +21.5% 5455 2838

2 TAS 2601 +54.7% 2542 +47.7% 3696 2486

3 UNIQ 1984 +9.4% 2381 +23.8% 4557 2114

4 VUSO 1693 +86.2% 2005 +78% 1726 1087

5 USG 1632 +17.2% 2243 -1.2% 3767 2312

6 INGO 1466 +34.6% 1993 +64.9% 3527 1889

7 Arsenal Insurance 1323 +5.3% 1599 +42.3 2383 1602

8 Universalna 1212 +48.3% 1463 +54.7% 2062 1121

9 PZU Ukraine 1109 +33.1% 1314 +42% 2065 1394

10 Oranta 927.8 +16.2% 1100 +29.6 1535 980.3

11 Guardian 844.5 +57.2% 1010 +60.5% 996.3 699.3

12 Knyazha VIG 825.5 +40.7% 1464 +68.9% 1758 1382

13 Premier Garant Profi 620.4 +26.9 617.5 +25.6% 180.2 19.7

14 Persha 487.4 +59.3% 599.4 +47.7% 926.9 639.9

15 Express Insurance 468.5 +12.5% 511.1 +68.5% 715 360.1

16 Colonnade Ukraine 355.1 +39% 450.2 65.4% 863 337.7

17 Euroins Ukraine 321.3 +9.3% 408 +22.1 1059 647.5

18 Alfa Garant 298.3 +24.2% 330.9 +37.6% 348.3 294

19 Oberig 293 +47.8% 275.1 +30.7% 278.3 186.8

20 UPSC 282.4 -63.9% 359.7 +0.2% 690.1 267

, ,

National Bank has published rating of most profitable banks in Ukraine

In the third quarter of 2023, state-owned PrivatBank once again topped the list of banks with the highest net profit with UAH 13 billion 623.5 million, followed by two other state-owned banks: Oschadbank with UAH 7 billion 338.2 million and the nationalized Sens-Bank with UAH 3 billion 440.5 million.

According to the data published by the National Bank of Ukraine on its website, the top five banks with the highest net profit in the third quarter also include two banks with foreign capital: Raiffeisen Bank – UAH 3 billion 17.1 million and Ukrsibbank – UAH 2 billion 98.9 million.

The second five banks were state-owned: the private Ukrainian FUIB – UAH 2 billion 4.4 million, the foreign subsidiary of OTP Bank – UAH 1 billion 893.4 million, the state-owned Ukreximbank – UAH 1 billion 619.2 million, and two other banks with foreign capital: Citibank – UAH 1 billion 469.7 million and Credit Agricole Bank – UAH 1 billion 299.3 million.

Universal Bank (mono) made almost the same net profit in July-September of this year – UAH 1 billion 294.4 million, while Kredobank, which follows, made a much smaller profit of UAH 594.6 million.

Two other banks made profits of over UAH 300 million in the third quarter: A-Bank – UAH 355.2 million and Ukrgasbank – UAH 325.0 million.

Of these 14 banks, only four have completed their reserves: Sense – UAH 548.0 million, while City, Raif and Credit Agricole – from UAH 30 million to UAH 20 million, while FUIB disbanded them by UAH 1 billion 413.4 million, Mono – UAH 1 billion 136.6 million, OTP, A-Bank and Ukrgas – from UAH 555 million to UAH 510 million.

The list of 7 unprofitable banks in the third quarter was headed by First Investment Bank of the sanctioned shareholders with a loss of UAH 33.0 million, while Credit-Dnipro and Privex-Bank also suffered similar losses of UAH 29.8 million and UAH 27.5 million, respectively.

Overall, in the third quarter, the net profit of 63 solvent banks amounted to UAH 42.33 billion, with provisions released by UAH 5 billion and total assets increasing by UAH 87.25 billion.

The three most profitable state-owned banks were the leaders in terms of asset growth: Privat – UAH 36.84 billion, Oschad – UAH 18.26 billion, and Sens – UAH 11.36 billion. This allowed Sens to return to the top ten banks by assets, from which it had fallen in June before the nationalization, and immediately to 8th place.

In the third quarter, Ukrexim’s assets decreased by UAH 15.65 billion, Pivdennyi’s by UAH 6.99 billion, and Ukrgas’s by UAH 1.54 billion, and 23 banks in total showed a decline in assets.

In the third quarter, banks increased their portfolio of government bonds by UAH 23.56 billion, with City – UAH 4.61 billion and Ukrgas – UAH 4.48 billion, followed by TAScombank, FUIB and IIB – from UAH 2.5 billion to UAH 2.1 billion.

In July-September, Ukrexim reduced its investments in domestic government bonds the most – UAH 2.45 billion, Sens – UAH 1.24 billion, Privat – UAH 0.7 billion, and First Investment Bank – UAH 0.48 billion.

Overall, PrivatBank remained the most profitable bank by a wide margin in the first nine months of this year, with UAH 43.37 billion, or 39.5% of the banking system’s net profit for the period.

In January-September, Oschad received UAH 14.18 billion in net profit, Raif – UAH 6.14 billion, FUIB – UAH 5.68 billion, Ukrsibbank – UAH 5.66 billion, Sens – UAH 5.58 billion, OTP Bank – UAH 4.75 billion, City – UAH 4.23 billion, and Ukrexim – UAH 3.60 billion.

Among the 12 banks whose net profit for the first nine months exceeded UAH 2 billion were Ukrgas – UAH 2.92 billion, Universal (mono) – UAH 2.86 billion, and Credit Agricole – UAH 2.29 billion.

, ,