Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 07 2021

FSUOGM NEWS IN BRIEF FSUOGM

EASTERN EUROPE Concorde Capital said in a note. calling for a shareholders meeting as soon
The separation of Naftogaz and Ukrnafta as possible.
Naftogaz paid UAH7bn to comes only a week after Ukrainian Kolomoisky have already filed legal
Minority shareholders aligned with
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched
the state budget in January an assault on Viktor Medvedchuk, the head complaints against the Ukrainian
of the Political Council of the Opposition
government in 2016 demanding
2021 Platform, For Life Party, by closing down compensation for an alleged $4.67bn in
losses. According to Ukraine’s Justice
several TV stations associated with the
Ukraine’s natural gas company paid over Ukrainian politician, who is a close personal Minister Denys Maliuska, the Arbitration
UAH7bn ($251mn) in taxes to the state friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Court in Stockholm might rule on this
and local budgets in January 2021, making This week Zelenskiy issued sanctions case in February 2021. He estimated the
it still the biggest single contributor to the by presidential decree – which can only potential loss for the government from the
budget, the company said in a statement on be challenged by the Supreme Court and claim at about $6bn.
February 15. not the corrupt regular courts that are “Meanwhile, the claim of Ukrnafta
Naftogaz group’s contribution accounted under the control of the oligarchs – against minorities against the government, however
for 10% of the state budget revenue in pro-Moscow MP Taras Kozak, who is absurd it could look at first glance, is a
January 2021. the nominal owner of the TV stations risk that should not be ignored. If the
In 2020, Naftogaz group’s tax and associated with Medvedchuk. minorities win their claim in Stockholm,
dividend payments to budgets at all levels Medvedchuk is also partnered with their leverage in Ukrnafta will significantly
totalled nearly UAH142bn. Kolomoisky and owns just under 25% of increase. Moreover, in such [a] case, it
his media empire that includes the major might happen that the government will have
broadcaster 1+1. Kolomoisky has been to compensate the minorities by providing
Naftogaz initiates split credited with putting Zelenskiy into office them some shares in Ukrnafta, which would
by using his media assets to back Zelenskiy's result in losses for Naftogaz,” Paraschiy said.
of Ukrnafta amid risk of presidential campaign in 2019; however, splitting the two companies has come up.
This is not the first time that the idea of
it increasingly appears the two have fallen
multi-billion claims from out as Kolomoisky lobbies to reverse the The government was toying with the idea in
nationalisation of PrivatBank that he owned
2019, but dropped it in August of that year.
minorities until 2016. between its shareholders is no longer
"Now the idea of splitting Ukrnafta
As bne IntelliNews reported, all of the
The CEO of Ukraine’s national gas company countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) relevant," Yuriy Vitrenko, the executive
Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, has started the are suffering from “The Oligarch Problem”, director of the Naftogaz group, said at the
process of separating the gas company from which is especially bad in Ukraine. time. Vitrenko was recently proposed by
Ukraine’s leading oil company Ukrnafta Analysts speculate that following the Zelenskiy for the post of Energy Minister,
as the battle between the state and the first call with the newly installed Biden but was rejected by the Rada, where
oligarchs heats up. administration in the US, Zelenskiy has oligarchs control almost 200 of the 422
Kobolev sent a letter to the supervisory been promised support as part of the US seats.
board asking its members to “study the campaign to meet what it sees as a Russian
possibility of dividing the company’s assets threat, but at the same time Washington
between two groups of shareholders,” wants to see some results in the fight against
Interfax-Ukraine reported on February 3. corruption in Ukraine that is embodied by CENTRAL ASIA & SOUTH
The move is the latest in the the oligarchs.
government’s recent attempts to rein in Naftogaz owns 50%+1 shares in Ukrnafta CAUCASUS
the country’s powerful oligarchs that have and wants the board to consider dividing
inserted themselves into the structures of the company by business directions to ADB says “first phase”
many of Ukraine’s most valuable assets. further separate Naftogaz from a group of
Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is a major minority shareholders that are related to of Turkmenistan’s TAPI
shareholder in Ukrnafta and has run scams Kolomoisky, who owns with his partners at
in the past to siphon off cash from things least a 41% stake in the company. pipeline to launch in 2021
such as the state procurement of oil, a high- In his letter, Kobolev asks for the
level Ukrainian official told bne IntelliNews, creation of a working group for the asset The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its
among other schemes. split, the hiring of one of the big-four audit “Asian Economic Integration Report 2021”
“Kolomoisky, as a powerful minority companies to undertake an assets valuation report has said that the first phase of the
shareholder in Ukrnafta, was always a and the appointment of a legal advisor Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India
headache for Naftogaz, so the intention of that will conduct the process, Concorde (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project remains
the state company to divorce itself from Capital reports. Kobolev expects that such on track and is set for a launch in 2021.
this group is natural. If the separation issues will be considered at Ukrnafta’s next The 1,814-kilometre TAPI pipeline
happens, this will add stability to Naftogaz's shareholder meeting. is designed to run from Turkmenistan’s
operations. However, the process does not Interfax-Ukraine also reported on Galkynysh gas field to the Indian city
promise to be fast: most likely it will take January 28 that Naftogaz had sent a letter of Fazilka via Herat and Kandahar in
a couple of years,” Alexander Paraschiy of to the minority shareholders of Ukrnafta Afghanistan and Quetta and Multan in

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 17•February•2021