KHARKIV. June 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The owner and president of DCH Group Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, who holds a controlling stake in Kharkiv Tractor Plant, has no plans to attract external investment for resumption of the plant’s operation.
“[The situation at] the plant is hard, but taking into account our experience, one can restore it. There are specialists, production facilities and desire. I have money and I am not going to involve anyone,” he said at a press conference in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
Yaroslavsky said that the problem with blocking the enterprise’s account and arrest of its assets should be resolved to quickly launch tractor production. The arrest is linked to criminal cases against the head of Kharkiv Tractor Plant Andriy Koval appointed in March 2016.
He said that if the accounts are unblocked, the plant will be able to pay wage arrears to its employees. The debt has reached UAH 20 million.
The businessman said dozens of millions of U.S. dollars would be required for the successful operation of the enterprise.
Yaroslavsky said that at his meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on June 9 the latter supported the proposal to resume production for the defense sector at Kharkiv Tractor Plant.
“On Thursday I spoke with the president and we discussed this issue. We backed this idea… We will have to launch production. We need a state order and investment. It is estimated at UAH 350-400 million,” he said.
Yaroslavsky said that the enterprise can sell its products on the Ukrainian market, as well in Kazakhstan and Russia.
As of June 14, 2016, Yaroslavsky held 62.44% of shares in Kharkiv Tractor Plant and the rest of the shares belonged to Siegfried Wolf.
