"Nova Poshta", part of the Nova group and a leading logistics operator in Ukraine, reports a significant demand for its bonds from a wide range of investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, investment funds, and banks, allowing for successful placements.
"From pension funds, we have (investments) of about 60 million UAH. Some may think that the pension fund market in Ukraine is underdeveloped, but we see that it exists," said Nova's CFO, Peter Fokov, at the Ukrainian CFO Forum held in Kyiv on October 24-25.
He clarified that "Nova Poshta" is currently conducting private bond placements among a pre-defined group of institutional investors as outlined in the prospectus, although individuals can also purchase them on the secondary market.
"We do have individuals (bondholders), but they are not as numerous compared to banks, insurance companies, and pension funds," Fokov stated.
The CFO of the Nova group noted that "Nova Poshta" is one of the leading issuers of hryvnia bonds in Ukraine and became the first issuer to resume releases in January 2023 after the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion.
According to him, the advantage of hryvnia bonds for the issuer is the absence of collateral, which is currently challenging for bank loans to assess.
"However, they (the bonds) are more expensive and require a bit more transparency, meaning more information needs to be disclosed on the website, but they do have their benefits," Fokov added.
He emphasized that the Nova group, which also issues bonds through "NovaPay Credit," enjoys keeping the bond market interesting and feels responsible for ensuring that these are reliable and stable instruments. "And people should trust such instruments as corporate bonds more than just government bonds," the CFO pointed out.
He stated that overall, the group's investments this year will double those of 2021 and amount to 8.5 billion UAH, and for debt financing, they also use loans from international financial organizations and banks.
Fokov specified that among the international financial organizations, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the primary partner, with which the group signed a loan agreement for 3 billion UAH this year.
"We are borrowing in UAH from the EBRD, specifically in UAH, because we are a company operating in UAH, we do not take unnecessary risks, and we want to be sure that we can repay the loan, so we calculate everything," he added.
Regarding bank lending, the CFO reported that the group cooperates with 10 leading Ukrainian banks.
He mentioned that with such a number of banking partners, each having its own requirements, Nova adheres to a strategy of full unification of covenants, based on the most developed system of financial covenants from the EBRD.
"It covers all issues and aspects. Therefore, we offer all our banking partners, with whom we begin additional cooperation, to simply adopt this covenant system or choose any requirements from this menu, so to speak. But we do not introduce any exotic new requirements. So far, this is working out for us," Fokov noted.
As reported, "Nova Poshta" announced in August this year the placement of an issue of unsecured interest bonds series "F" with a total nominal value of 1 billion UAH. The maturity date of the bonds is June 10, 2026, with an interest rate of 16% per annum, and the interest payment date is June 5, 2026, with a nominal value of 1,000 UAH.
The report on the placement of the previous series "E" issue of the same volume, maturing on August 8, 2025, with an interest rate of 17% per annum, was registered by "Nova Poshta" with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission on July 4 of this year. Most of it, amounting to 650 million UAH, was purchased in May by Oschadbank (Kyiv). It was noted that this is already the third transaction since 2019 for financing "Nova Poshta" through the purchase of corporate bonds by the state bank.
As of mid-2023, "Nova Poshta's" obligations on bonds of series "E" amounted to 995.16 million UAH, series "F" – 994.88 million UAH, and the previously issued bonds of series "D" maturing at the end of January 2025 – 818.51 million UAH.
In total, "Nova Poshta's" obligations on bonds at the end of June this year were equal to 2 billion 808.55 million UAH, while obligations to banks amounted to 3 billion 136.12 million UAH, and the total amount of obligations and guarantees was 15 billion 562.04 million UAH.
In 2023, "Nova Poshta" issued two bond series – "C" and "D" – each with a nominal volume of 800 million UAH. Series "C" bonds were issued for a term of 12 months with an interest rate of 24% per annum, while series "D" bonds were issued for 20 months with an interest rate of 23% per annum.
Earlier, in February 2023, the company redeemed bonds of series "B," issued in March 2020, worth 700 million UAH.
LLC "Nova Poshta" increased its unconsolidated net income in the first half of 2024 by 20.1% to 20.12 billion UAH, however, the company's net profit decreased by 38.1% to 1.49 billion UAH.