CBONDS AWARDS CIS: ICU NAMED THE BEST INVESTMENT BANK OF UKRAINE FOR THE FIFTH TIME IN A ROW

On June 13, during the XVI CIS, Baltic States and Caucasus Bond Congress the winners of the annual Cbonds Awards CIS were announced.

Readers of the Cbonds financial portal including financial analysts, economists, top managers and owners of financial institutions voted ICU Group as the Best Investment Bank of Ukraine for the fifth consecutive year.

"ICU continues to maintain leadership in the Ukrainian asset management market. Last year, assets of our investment and pension funds in Ukraine grew by 14% and reached 3.5 billion UAH. The size and profitability of our funds remain among the highest in the market," said Makar Paseniuk, Managing Partner of ICU.

The ICU-controlled Bond Fund is the largest in its segment of the market, with assets amounting to 213 million UAH as of May 2019. The Fund’s profitability in 2018 reached 15.22% and during the first five months of 2019 it has already amounted to 10.29%, which is equivalent to 24.87% in annual terms.

ICU’s pension assets grew by UAH 30.7 million (+7%) over first five months of 2019 reaching a total of UAH 498.3 million. ICU’s share of the non-governmental pension assets market equals 17%, as the number of its pension funds clients exceeded 117 thousand people (13.7% of the total pension funds clients in Ukraine). The profitability of the group's non-governmental pension funds tops inflation for the third consecutive year.

During the last year, ICU also launched funds specializing in problem assets and venture capital business.

In addition, ICU continues to strengthen its leadership position on the Ukrainian government bonds market.

"In 2018, we conducted government bonds transactions amounting to more than 60 billion UAH. ICU’s Ukrainian government bonds market share is around 25% and we are not going to stop there. Our plans include active development of the retail direction and boosting the number of private clients,” – emphasized Konstantin Stetsenko, Managing Partner of ICU.

About ICU

ICU is an independent asset management and investment advisory firm specialising in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Founded in 2006 by senior investment professionals from ING, ICU is Ukraine's leading asset manager with over $500m in assets under management. Our current strategy includes significant allocations to venture capital, alternative energy & renewables and distressed debt.

Our veteran investment team has experience in private equity & venture capital, high yield corporate debt, distressed debt, restructurings and other special situations across a number of emerging markets. Investment decisions are supported by robust macroeconomic and sectoral analyses from our in-house team of research economists.

We aim to provide our clients with superior risk-adjusted returns across a number of asset classes. The firm is expanding its reach into key European markets via a combination of organic growth and acquisition and continues to expand the range its investment offerings.