The Board of Directors of IDS Ukraine Group, which produces mineral water under Morshynska and Mirgorodska brands, decided not to accrue or pay dividends for 2022 and decided to direct all available funds to charitable purposes, the holding said in a press release on Wednesday.
“The company’s management and non-sanctioned shareholders fully share the state’s just desire to protect the economy and the country. That is why, back at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it was decided to forgo dividends in 2022 and direct all available funds to charity,” the document states.
According to the press release, 100% of the corporate rights of the group’s shareholders have now been seized and transferred to the National Agency for the Detection, Search and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) because of the sanctions imposed on its shareholders with Russian citizenship. At the same time, according to IDS Ukraine, more than 50% of the holding’s securities belong to persons to whom sanctions were not applied – citizens of Great Britain, Georgia and Ukraine.
The press release notes that IDS Ukraine provided more than UAH 100 mln of charitable aid in 2022; in particular, it transferred water in excess of UAH 67 mln for the needs of military personnel, the wounded, displaced persons and residents of de-occupied territories. In addition, the holding continues to pay salaries for a hundred and fifty of its mobilized employees, as well as buying for them ammunition and equipment.
“For their part, the non-sanctioned shareholders of the company, even though the state grossly violates their property rights, consider the provision of charitable assistance in 2023 as one of the priority areas of the companies. Only in January 2023, 120 thousand liters of water were transferred to Kherson, and the total amount of transferred products already this year is about 500 thousand liters,” the mineral water producer summarized in a press release.
As earlier reported, on February 10 ARMA announced a competition for the selection of a manager for arrested assets of IDS Ukraine, which produces and sells mineral water under brands Morshinskaya, Mirgorodskaya and Borjomi.
Earlier, Marko Tkachuk, the general director of IDS Ukraine, said in response to Interfax-Ukraine news agency inquiry that the transfer of corporate rights of the company worth more than UAH 10 billion to ARMA will not affect the economic activities of the group. He also reminded that the decision about the transfer of corporate rights of the sanctioned IDS shareholders with Russian citizenship to ARMA was made by Kiev Shevchenko District Court on November 9 and 11, 2022.
On November 23 last year, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) reported about the arrest of corporate rights of the Russian shareholders of the IDS Ukraine in order to avoid their withdrawal from Ukraine of the assets of seven enterprises for the production and sale of drinking water. According to the BEB, these enterprises are actually owned by them through a non-resident offshore company under their control.
IDS Ukraine is a Ukrainian group of companies founded in 1996, the largest national producer of bottled water. The holding includes Morshynsky mineral water plant “Oskar”, “Mirgorod mineral water plant”, the distribution company “IDS” and water delivery operator “IDS Aqua Service”.
GK owns trade marks Morshinskaya, Mirgorodskaya, Alaska and Aqua Life.
