Dmitry Firtash
The founder of Group DF decided to relieve Naftogaz Ukrainy of excess billions.
Dmytro Firtash's group is preparing for a grand sendoff for one of the former gas market favorites, Lidergaz LLC. A precedent for this was set just recently, when a company affiliated with this company billed him over 3 billion hryvnias. With no means to pay the debt, the company is preparing for liquidation. Lidergaz will also take billions of dollars in receivables from Firtash's chemical plants with it, thereby casting a serious doubt on their settlements with Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Lidergaz's primary objectives were defined from the company's founding in 2009: gas distribution and supply. The plans of its founder, Kyiv businessman Yevhen Pastukh, were straightforward: obtain a license to handle natural gas at an unregulated rate and profit from reselling the energy resource. In its first year, the trader, in market parlance, "carried gas in buckets"—that is, sold modest volumes. But in 2010, it was acquired by Cypriot Menga Establishment Limited, after which the company's life changed dramatically.
According to DS, this company initially became one of the main contractors of the national gas pipeline system operator, Ukrtransgaz. Some time later, Lidergaz became the direct seller of imported Russian gas in Ukraine, supplied to it by Ostchem Holding Limited, the parent company of the holding company that consolidated Dmitry Firtash's chemical enterprises.
The dynamic development of the former fox breeder from Chernivtsi in this field was explained simply. At that time, Ukrtransgaz was managed by Serhiy Vinokurov, the former head of Osthem Ukraine. However, after Viktor Yanukovych migrated to Russia in 2014, Firtash lost operational control over the gas transmission system operator, and with it, the opportunity to profit from natural gas trading.
Under pressure from these circumstances, Lidergaz was forced to sharply reduce its trading volume, which at its peak reached $700 million annually. However, despite its current modest performance, the company has found itself at the center of a scandal. As DS has discovered, three lawsuits totaling UAH 3,4 billion were filed against it in May. The author of these claims is the Cypriot company Staher Investments Limited, whose lawsuits will be heard by the Kyiv Commercial Court in just a few days: one for UAH 1 billion on May 30, and two for two identical debts of UAH 1,2 billion each on June 2 and 9. These billion-dollar debts were incurred by Lidergaz as a result of non-payment for natural gas, which the company received for sale under a corresponding agreement with the Cypriots.
The outcome of these cases can already be predicted with a high degree of certainty, given that both the plaintiff and defendant are considered close to the same individual, who has been desperate to leave Austria since 2014 but is at pains to avoid entering the United States. The fact that Staher Investments Limited is within Firtash's orbit is confirmed by the findings of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Division, where Dmitry Vasilyevich is being heard on charges of bribing Indian officials to obtain permits for the development of titanium deposits in India. The closeness of Lidergaz, currently registered to Vadym Dvorak, a young resident of the village of Solonitsevka in the Kharkiv region, to the gas oligarch is confirmed by the close integration of this company, which used to be serviced by Firtash's Nadra Bank, into gas operations within the Ostchem group involving the Azot and Stirol plants. The question is: why did Staher Investments decide to forcibly extract debts from a related company?
According to one theory, this initiative may be connected to a desire to initiate the bankruptcy process and subsequent liquidation of Lidergaz, thereby ending numerous criminal proceedings by the Prosecutor General's Office investigating the 650 million hryvnia losses inflicted on Ukrtransgaz by shell companies, including this trader. But there is a more interesting scenario.
Lidergaz was a direct gas supplier to the Ukrainian chemical plants of the Ostchem holding. According to DS, the active phase of this relationship ended precisely at the stage of prepayments, which were never repaid by the transfer of energy resources.
Lidergaz's current debt to the chemical industry is exactly the same as the company's debt to Staher Investments Limited—over 3 billion hryvnias. It owes 650 million hryvnias to Cherkasy Azot, 1,3 billion hryvnias to the Stirol concern, 570 million hryvnias to Rivneazot, and 500 million hryvnias to Severodonetsk Azot. Thus, Lidergaz currently owes money on two fronts.
On the one hand, these could be considered internal problems for the founder of Group DF. But there's a catch. Lidergaz's inability to pay off the chemical companies means that these enterprises will likely lack the funds to repay their multi-billion-dollar debts to Naftogaz of Ukraine. At best, this will lead to a disruption to the two-year repayment schedule for these accounts payable, recently agreed upon by Ostchem and Naftogaz. But with luck, several of Firtash's enterprises, primarily Stirol and Severodonetsk-based Azot, both based in the ATO zone and whose production facilities are currently idle, may attempt to write off their debts to Naftogaz entirely. What amount are we talking about? Incredibly, it's almost the same as Lidergaz's debt to the chemical companies—2,8 billion hryvnias.
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