Sergey Levochkin
The National Bank of Ukraine seems to have decided to target banks exclusively on Fridays. Last week proved to be a dark one, including for the All-Ukrainian Development Bank (VDB), once the most successful dentist in Ukraine, Oleksandr Viktorovych Yanukovych.
The NBU's wording, which classified VBR as insolvent and placed it under temporary administration, was laconic: "In connection with the application by the Council of the European Union of sanctions against the sole shareholder of PJSC VBR – A.V. Yanukovych, in particular regarding the freezing of assets, in order to protect the interests of depositors and other creditors of this bank."
Alexander Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov
We're not sure if this dealt an irreparable blow to "Sasha the Dentist"'s wallet, but it was certainly unpleasant news for him. Just like the recent proposals voiced by Valery Yakushev, a deputy from the pro-Putin United Russia party, to send the "family" back to their historical homeland. And although the United Russia leadership is currently disavowing this idea, a bad taste remains, as they say. Therefore, "Sasha the Dentist" immediately receives a "-2" – for the loss of his "hard-earned" banking business in his homeland, which is waiting for him, and perhaps will.
Serhiy Lyovochkin's group now knows what a "Pyrrhic victory" is. The auction for a blocking stake in Zakarpattyaoblenergo, won last Wednesday by businessman Ihor Tynny, close to former head of the Yanukovych administration, through the mediation of the company Favorit, apparently didn't go quite as planned. As a result of the vigorous raising of signs by representatives of the company Business-Invest, part of the Privat Group, Lyovochkin's group was forced to significantly overpay for the securities, which had become "priceless" to them. In 2012, under the cover of "Papa," 50% of the shares in the Zakarpattia energy company were sold for just 140 million hryvnias. Now, with the starting price of 67 million hryvnias, a stake half that size (25%) has gone to Lyovochkin and Tynny for 255 million hryvnias—all thanks to the efforts of a "competing firm." If Privat wanted its rival to be nervous and overpay, it achieved its goal. And Levochkin gets a minus one for allowing Kolomoisky to experiment on him once again.
Dmitry Firtash and Sergei Levochkin
Last week, the Virgin Islands Commercial Court held its first hearing on the Austrian Erste Group's bankruptcy petition against HF Assets Management Limited, the main shareholder of Mriya. Western creditors' patience appears to have run out after Ivan Guta's family, which owns the holding and is not known for its modesty, offered to write off two-thirds of Mriya's debts. That's nearly $900 million. Unsurprisingly, creditors of what was once Ukraine's most profitable agricultural holding decided not to wait for the "Ternopil gas giants" to withdraw everything they could from the company and wave a corn cob, symbolizing someone's demise, in front of the global financial community.
Ivan Guta
Thus, Erste Group is currently attempting to replace the company's management in favor of a group of creditors. And this plan has already partially begun to work. Mriya has announced its readiness to begin selling assets to pay off creditors, although these assets previously weren't even listed on the company's balance sheets. So the Gutas are clearly beginning to understand that the proverb "A crest was born, a Jew hanged himself" didn't mention the Austrians. And Ivan Guta gets a "-1" for the fact that he won't own Mriya anytime soon.
Igor Kolomoisky
Meanwhile, Ihor Kolomoisky and his interest group spent the entire week maneuvering. On the one hand, as we mentioned above, he slightly injected cash into the Ukrainian budget through his participation in the auction of Zakarpattyaoblenergo shares. On the other hand, he appears to have failed miserably with his aviation initiatives—the Ministry of Justice suspended the controversial State Aviation Service order on new rules for carriers, which played into the hands of UIA. In the privatization auctions for Vinnytsiaoblenergo and Chernivtsioblenergo, PrivatBank's men didn't harass the companies of Russians Konstantin Grigorishin and Yevhen Giner, but simply played the role of extras. Finally, Kolomoisky's "left hand," Borys Filatov, visited the Prosecutor General's Office and hastened to abandon his membership in the parliamentary faction of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. All this has led to speculation that some kind of conflict is brewing between the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast governor and the President of Ukraine. But for now, this is just speculation, so Kolomoisky hasn't benefited from it, either. Which, in general, isn't all that bad.
Alexey KOZHEMYAKIN, SLED.net.ua
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