The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the state-owned Ukrgasbank and Sens Bank, and N.M. Rothschild & Sons Limited—a member of the Rothschild & Co. group—have signed tripartite agreements for financial advisory services to prepare for the sale of the state’s stake in the two banks.
“Rothschild & Co was selected following a competitive bidding process. Rothschild & Co will provide services as part of a consortium with FinPoint, a Ukrainian investment banking firm,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Finance posted on its website on Friday.
According to the press release, the advisor will provide comprehensive financial consulting services, including: coordinating due diligence on the banks’ operations—in part to determine the initial sale price—preparing information about the banks for potential investors, attracting investors, and facilitating the organization of a competitive bidding process for the sale of their shares.
“Engaging an international financial advisor is an important step in implementing the strategy to reduce the state’s stake in the banking sector. Our task is to ensure a transparent, competitive process for the sale of state-owned stakes in Ukrgasbank and Sens Bank, attract strategic investors, and create conditions for the further development of these institutions,” the press release quotes Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko as saying.
The banks will provide updates on the next steps in preparing for privatization on their official websites, the press release also states.
As previously reported, on October 1, 2025, the government issued a directive on preparing for the sale of state-owned stakes in Sens Bank and Ukrgasbank; on October 29, the procedure for engaging an advisor was approved, and on March 31, 2026, a competition was announced to select the advisor. The advisor’s compensation will consist of a fixed portion and a success fee of up to 3% of the actual proceeds to the state budget from the sale of the stakes. The government also established a commission for the sale of state-owned stakes in banks.
N.M. Rothschild & Sons Limited is a company within the Rothschild & Co. group, registered in England and Wales, with its headquarters in London. It specializes in financial advisory services, corporate finance, and support for mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Previously, the Rothschild & Co. group advised Ukraine on the restructuring of its sovereign debt; it was also hired by Ukrzaliznytsia this year to restructure its Eurobonds.
As part of its programs with the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine has repeatedly committed to engaging an advisor for the privatization of Sens Bank and Ukrgasbank; the initial deadline was set for the end of September 2024, and the latest deadline—under the new program—is the end of July of this year.
According to data from the National Bank, as of July 1, 2026, Ukrgasbank, with total assets of 228.74 billion hryvnia, ranked seventh, while Sens Bank, with 157.73 billion hryvnia, ranked ninth among Ukraine’s 59 banks.
MINISTRY OF FINANCE, PRIVATIZATION, ROTHSCHILD, UKRGASBANK, СЕНС БАНК
Despite delays in receiving external financing, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine will currently refrain from significantly increasing the volume of borrowing on the domestic debt market in order to avoid raising the cost of servicing that debt, said First Deputy Minister of Finance Roman Yermolychev.
“We will monitor the status of the Single Treasury Account. We must understand that these are debt obligations that we must fulfill in any case,” the First Deputy Minister noted during a budget discussion organized by the Center for Economic Strategy last week.
“Raising more funds would require raising interest rates, which we would prefer to avoid,” Yermolichev emphasized.
He recalled that at the most recent primary auctions of domestic government bonds, the Ministry of Finance managed to increase the amount of funds raised by 5 billion hryvnia compared to the standard trend.
“Future fundraising rounds may also be larger, depending on how much funding we’ll need for social payments and those critical expenditures that arise on a daily basis,” said the first deputy minister.
According to him, while awaiting external financing—which is contingent on the Verkhovna Rada’s adoption of a number of laws—the Ministry of Finance has deferred approximately 39 billion hryvnias in unsecured capital expenditures to December.
As reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, during the first primary auctions for the placement of domestic government bonds following the National Bank’s increase of the discount rate from 15.5% to 16% per annum on September 22, the Ministry of Finance was able not only to maintain yields on standard bonds at the previous level, but also to lower rates on benchmark bonds, which banks can use to partially form their required reserves. The cut-off rates for 12-month and 29-month OVDPs remained at 15.18% and 16.10%, respectively, while the rate for benchmark bonds fell to 12.18%.
In total, the Ministry of Finance raised 7.36 billion UAH across three auctions, compared to 2.01 billion UAH a week earlier, when there were two auctions and the offering at each was 1 billion UAH.
For the upcoming auctions on Tuesday, September 29, the Ministry of Finance reduced the supply of standard OVDPs to 1 billion UAH from 3 billion UAH last Tuesday, while retaining the more popular one-year bonds. At the same time, it will again offer 5 billion UAH in benchmark bonds, whereas previously these instruments were auctioned off approximately once a month.
The Ministry of Finance added euro-denominated domestic government bonds maturing on May 6, 2027, to the primary auction on Tuesday, December 9.
According to the updated placement calendar, the rest of Tuesday’s auctions remain unchanged: traditional offers of four issues of government bonds in hryvnia – 1.1 years, 1.7 years, 2.5 years, and 3.1 years, as well as 1.5-year dollar-denominated government bonds.
On November 18, the Ministry of Finance already held an unscheduled auction for the placement of OVDPs in euros, for which a total of EUR 6.7 million in bids were submitted for EUR 100 million, and the cut-off rate remained at 3.25%.
As for dollar-denominated government bonds, last Tuesday the Ministry of Finance refused to put them up for sale, and at the last auction on November 25, it was able to attract $121.2 million for offers of $200 million, but at the same time lowered the cut-off rate from 4.05% to 4.02%, and the weighted average rate from 4.01% to 3.98%.
As for hryvnia bonds, their placement rates have remained unchanged since April this year: 16.35% for 13-month securities, 17.1% for 19-month securities, 17.5% for 28-month securities, and 17.8% for 36-month securities per annum.
According to the updated placement calendar, there are currently no offers for either currency OVDPs or benchmark OVDPs, which banks can use to partially form reserves, at the last two auctions on December 16 and 23.
Cash expenditures of Ukraine’s general fund state budget in October 2025 amounted to UAH 312.6 billion, which is UAH 33.6 billion, or 10.7%, more than in October 2024, according to the Ministry of Finance.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in January-October 2025, general fund expenditures reached UAH 3.16 trillion, exceeding the figure for the same period last year by UAH 507.2 billion, or 19.1%.
“General fund expenditures of the state budget for security and defense in January-October 2025 amounted to UAH 2 trillion, or 63.3% of all general fund expenditures. In particular, UAH 220.6 billion was spent in October,” the report said.
A month earlier, UAH 210.8 billion was allocated to security and defense, with total general fund expenditures of UAH 312.6 billion, indicating continued growth in monthly defense payments.
At the same time, for the sixth time in a row, the Ministry of Finance does not disclose more detailed items of military expenditures in its operational report – data on payments of monetary support to military personnel, purchases of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, and defense products, as well as separate transfers to the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), the Pension Fund, and the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.
At the same time, according to Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada on September 19, the monthly level of monetary support for the military in 2025 will increase significantly. “January – UAH 78.8 billion, February – UAH 86 billion, March – UAH 86 billion, April – UAH 91 billion, May – UAH 97 billion, and August also UAH 98 billion,” the minister said.
In October 2024, the Ministry of Finance reported the payment of UAH 86 billion in monetary support, which allows us to assess the scale of growth in military payments against the backdrop of the ongoing full-scale war.
JSC “NAEK ”Energoatom” will be profitable in all three scenarios during 2025-2028, with profits in 2028 expected to be twice as high as in 2026-2027, due in particular to the expected rise in electricity prices.
This forecast is contained in the annual information on fiscal risks prepared by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine based on data from 12 state-owned companies as part of the adoption of the 2026 state budget. Within the document, basic, alternative, and negative scenarios are modeled for each company based on macroeconomic scenarios for the development of Ukraine’s economy.
“Net revenues from NAEK Energoatom to the state budget are expected in all scenarios and will grow as the company’s profitability increases,” the document says.
As noted by its authors, NAEK plans to build new power units in the long term and has plans in the medium term to attract sufficient debt financing to fund investments. However, construction will continue after the end of the medium-term period, and if such construction is financed through debt obligations, high costs are expected to increase the company’s obligations to a level that it may not be able to service.
“Fiscal risks may materialize if the government has to provide funding to cover part of these costs, or if the government has to service Energoatom’s debts,” the Ministry of Finance concluded.
Under the baseline scenario, Energoatom’s capital expenditures will average about UAH 59 billion per year from 2025 without budget financing, while expenditures on PSO for tariff compensation for the population will decrease by an average of 2.3% in the period 2026-2028.
In addition, the baseline scenario assumes an average increase in electricity prices of 7.9% per year, as well as a slight decrease in the company’s electricity production in 2026-2027, followed by an increase in 2028.
As the Ministry of Finance noted, NAEK received a net profit of UAH 1.3 billion in 2024, compared to a loss of UAH 11.3 billion in 2023. Last year, the company demonstrated a 35% increase in revenue due to a 33.5% increase in the weighted average price of electricity.
According to the results of 2024, the volume of PSO in Energoatom amounted to UAH 109.3 billion, or 53% of the company’s net income for that year.
On April 3, the Finance Ministry announced a tender for voluntary insurance of motor vehicles (CASCO), according to the Prozorro e-procurement system.
The total expected cost of the service is 143 thousand UAH. The last day for accepting bids is April 11.
