The European Bank for Recontruction and Development (EBRD) would provide a loan to Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivry in Ukraine, for its development.
The two sides of the loan agreement confirmed their plans. The sum of the loan is not disclosed. The EBRD has not yet posted information about the loan on its website. According to the rules of the bank, it can decide not to publish information about a loan which is smaller than $20 million. The details of the agreement and development plans will be announced at a joint press conference on April 4, 2018. Nova Poshta, founded in 2001, is the leader in the local delivery market. The company’s network consists of more than 2,300 depots. In 2017, Nova Poshta delivered more than 145 million items.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO) did not reveal any violations during the searches at the offices of Nova Poshta on March 16, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko assured Nova Poshta co-owner Viacheslav Klimov. “The funds of customers of Post Finance [the Forpost system] seized during the search will be returned. The legal service of the Nova Poshta group of companies will answer all questions of the Prosecutor General’s Office and will provide all the necessary materials that will allow making a lawful decision on the case,” the group wrote on Facebook.
At the same time, it notes the prosecutor general expressed concern about the use of carriers in schemes for transportation of illegal goods. “The parties agreed to develop a joint action plan to prevent possible cases of transportation of illegal goods,” Nova Poshta stated.
PGO Speaker Andriy Lysenko, in turn, wrote on Facebook that during a meeting of Yuriy Lutsenko and Viacheslav Klimov, the parties expressed interest in the lawful organization of work of the leader of the Ukrainian express delivery market. “The prosecutor general and the Nova Poshta representative agreed on cooperation to improve the company’s work, minimize the risks of carrying prohibited goods and prevent possible illegal financial services in order to evade taxation. For this the working meetings of Nova Poshta lawyers and financiers with the representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office will be held, as well as control purchases of goods and services will be made,” the speaker said.
He also said that Lutsenko informed Klimov about the numerous facts of violations, which were revealed in work of the Nova Poshta branches. In particular, this concerned the transfer of non-excise alcoholic drinks and narcotic substances in large quantities. The investigators also received information from the Interior Ministry regarding possible tax evasion in the course of money transfers.
As reported, with reference to Lutsenko’s press secretary Larysa Sarhan, the Prosecutor General’s Office suspects officials of the companies affiliated with Nova Poshta LLC of non-payment of taxes in especially large amounts, and therefore on March 16 it conducted searches in the central office in Kyiv and other offices of the company in Poltava, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Lviv.
Later it became known that Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman instructed the Ministry of Justice, the Business Ombudsman Council, the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office to analyze the cases of searches at the enterprises and prepare a meeting of the special commission formed in the framework of monitoring the implementation of the law on business protection “stop masks-show.”
Nova Poshta group of companies, the leader of express delivery in Ukraine, demands to immediately stop criminal proceedings against it and pressure on business. According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, this was stated by co-founder of the group Viacheslav Klimov during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine dedicated to searches in the offices of Nova Poshta conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine on Friday, March 16.
“At the same time, I want to emphasize that we are ready to answer any questions of law enforcers through civilized requests, through meetings, and not in the form of forceful actions, searches and interrogations. Our lawyers, the employees of financial directorates are ready to cooperate and answer any questions, but we want this to be made not in blocked offices, not within eight hours, not in the format of searches, interrogations, and arrests,” he said.
According to Klimov, Nova Poshta reminds the authorities and demands them to fulfill the promise to create a financial investigations service that will deprive the appropriate forces of relevant powers and will become an analytical service without force instruments as in the entire civilized world.
“We are sure that the effectiveness of this kind of activity will grow at once, which will influence the budget of our law enforcement bodies. We also demand that the moratorium on inspections, which has recently expired and inspections immediately resumed and became more aggressive, be renewed,” Klimov added.
Nova Poshta delivery company (Kyiv) launched freight and mail delivery to over 200 countries on November 17
Co-owner of the company Viacheslav Klimov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday that international delivery has already been launched to Georgia and Moldova.
He said that initially, the service will be available in Kyiv, by March 2016 it will be available in cities with a population of over one million, and by autumn – all over Ukraine.
Deliveries can be made within seven days or three days.
Clients will be able to fill in all the required applications online, before subsequently bringing the parcels to the delivery department or handing them over to the company’s couriers. Additionally, clients can track the delivery of the parcels.
Nova Poshta has created a separate company in its structure – Nova Poshta International. Tymur Kohan, a member of Nova Poshta’s supervisory board, is the director of the new company.
Kohan said that the company expects that the international delivery market will double in three or four years and the company plans to increase its share of the market to 20%.
Kohan said that there are plans to communicate with international companies, logistics operators, and online trade market players.
“We’ve built a chain of business partners from international companies, own transport and logistics chain and we plan to open two more hubs in Asia and the United States next year,” he said.
At present, the company has delivery hubs in the Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia and Moldova.
Kohan said that the delivery of documents weighing 500 grams to Europe will cost from $18, parcels of 22 kilograms – from $34.
He said that UPS, DPD, and DB Shenker are among the partners of the company.
Nova Poshta is private postal delivery company in Ukraine. Its network consists of more than 3,000 offices in more than 900 settlements in the country.
