The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) allowed Aqua Solar Invest LLC (Bershad, Vinnytsia region) to purchase Kobylovoloki distillery (Kobylovoloki village, Ternopil region), which is part of Ukrspirt, and Vitagro Energy LLC (Gvardeyske village, Khmelnitsk region) was allowed to purchase the Marylivsky distillery (Nagirnyanka village, Ternopil region) from Ukrspirt.
The Committee approved the corresponding permits for the privatized assets at its meeting on December 1.
LLC “Aqua Solar Invest” won the right for privatization of Kobylivolokskyi distillery for UAH 70,25 mln on September 19, 2022.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiaries of “Aqua Solar Invest” with a registered capital of 25 million UAH are Alexander Yaroshenko (25% in the share capital), Lilia Astapova (25%) and Elena Smirnova (25%), while until December 2020 the company was fully owned by Felix Lutsky. The legal entity is engaged in distillation, rectification and blending of alcoholic beverages, while before January 2021 its line of business was real estate trade.
This company already has experience in privatization of assets of state enterprise “Ukrspirt” – in October 2020 it won the online auction “Prozorro.Sells” the right to privatize Bershadskyi distillery for 19.81 million UAH, and in early February 2022 closed the deal to purchase it, having received permission of the AMCU.
The immovable property of the Kobylivolok distillery to be privatized with a total area of 11.5 thousand square meters is located on seven plots of land in Terebovlyansky district of Ternopil region with a total area of 36.95 hectares. The plant includes production buildings, granary, distillery, hangars, pumping stations, greenhouse, starch and malt shops, gas station, etc., as well as the technological equipment and the necessary communications.
The daily capacity of the distillery is 2.7 thousand dal of ethyl alcohol. The company was founded in 1905 and modernized in 2016. Production at the facility has been temporarily suspended.
In turn, Vitagro Energy won the right to privatize Marylivskyi distillery for UAH 150 mln on September 20, 2022.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Vitagro Energy LLC with a registered capital of 10 thousand UAH is Serhiy Labaziuk, a member of parliament (the Za Maybutne parliamentary faction). The main activity of the company is the production of electricity, but the legal entity may also engage in the cultivation of root crops and melons, as well as auxiliary activities in crop farming.
The company is part of the large Vitagro holding, which is engaged in the production and processing of crops, including fruits and vegetables, dairy farming and pig breeding. The Group cultivates about 85 thousand hectares of land in Khmelnytsky, Ternopil and Rivne regions and has a livestock of 110 thousand pigs.
According to Vitagro’s website, Vitagro Energy was founded in 2018 to develop renewable energy projects. The company has four solar power plants in the Khmelnitsky region on a total area of 29.5 hectares with a total capacity of 12.9 MW, and also works with other sources of renewable energy, such as wind and biomass.
The Marylivsky distillery is located in the village of Nagirnyanka, Chortkivsky district, Ternopil region. The list of assets includes 1518 items of buildings, equipment, movable and other property.
The enterprise is located on three land plots with a total area of 26.6 hectares and consists of an administration building, seven production shops, a bard storage facility, a starch workshop, greenhouses, hangars, warehouses for grain, finished products and alcohol, as well as other constructions and infrastructure facilities.
The distillery was founded in 1928, the maximum production capacity in 2009 was 7300 thousand dal per day.
Thus, the privatization of these two assets of Ukrspirt will allow the State Property Fund of Ukraine to transfer 220.25m dollars to the state budget.