Smart Holding, a large Ukrainian investment and industrial group and international investor, announced a change of owner, which until recently was former MP Vadym Novinsky, as a result of the completion of another round of the current restructuring.
“As part of the restructuring, Smart Holding founder Vadim Novinsky decided to transfer the assets to a trust. The relevant Smart Trust and Step Trust agreements were concluded in November 2022 and registered with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission,” the group said on its website on Monday.
According to it, the trustees were highly qualified fiduciary administrators appointed in accordance with the licensing conditions of Cyprus law.
“Accordingly, the fiduciaries (trusts) fully own, control and manage the Group’s assets… According to the foregoing, as of the current date, Vadim Novinsky has no beneficial interest in the Group and exercises no control over the Group’s activities or processes,” the information notes.
According to it, Novinskiy, who has not participated in the management of Smart Holding since 2013, decided to concentrate his activity on private interests.
As reported, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky decree of December 1, 2022 introduced the decision of the National Security and Defense Council “On certain aspects of the activities of religious organizations in Ukraine and the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)”, which sanctions were also applied to Novinsky.
The sanctions package includes 12 types of imposed restrictions, in particular, full blocking of assets, a ban on trade operations, deprivation of all state awards and insignia, a ban on taking capital out of Ukraine, etc.
In a statement, Smart Holding stresses that it continues to work as usual, it is led by a professional management team, conducting business in conditions of economic and civil crisis caused by the war with Russia.
The information indicates that representatives of the trust, as the beneficial owner, together with Smart Holding management are finalizing a new corporate governance structure and management structure for Smart Holding in accordance with best international practices, and are in the process of selecting new board members.
“Smart Holding has a mission to support the Ukrainian economy to withstand the devastation of war. The group will be actively involved in the post-war reconstruction of the country. We also have ambitious investment goals as part of our international development strategy. We believe that with the accumulated talent and experience in the management team, the company will renew its assets and become stronger”, – Smart Holding CEO Yulia Kiryanova was quoted in the report.
Smart Holding is one of the largest investment groups in Ukraine and one of its main assets is a 23.76% stake in the mining and metallurgical holding Metinvest. Group companies also invest in other assets of mining, metallurgy, oil and gas, agriculture, shipbuilding, real estate and energy sectors. The holding’s strategy is aimed at effective management of a diversified portfolio of investments in order to increase its value in the long term, according to its website.
More than half of Ukrainians do not trust the data of the Ministry of Health on the situation with the incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine, considering these data to be either overstated or understated. This is according to the data of a common sociological study conducted by Active Group and Club of Experts companies, the results of which are available to Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the study conducted on July 10-12 by telephone interview, in particular, 34.2% of respondents do not trust the official data, since, in their opinion, the statistics of the Ministry of Health on the number of COVID-19 cases is overstated.
Another 20.5% of respondents do not trust the official statistics, considering it understated.
Some 18.6% of respondents fully trust the official data and some 14.9% partially.
According to the study conducted in early July, some 34.8% of respondents said that lockdown restrictions did not change their work in any way, while according to the study conducted in April, only 18.3% of respondents said that lockdown did not affect to their work.
The study was conducted throughout Ukraine, with the exception of the temporarily occupied territories and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, based on a representative sample. The study involved 1,000 respondents.
Findings of a public opinion poll conducted by the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, the Social Monitoring Center, and the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences show that the majority of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s armed forces.
According to the poll results, which were presented at Interfax-Ukraine’s office on Thursday, almost 58% of Ukrainians generally trust Zelensky, 35.1% are more likely to trust the president, and 23% of citizens trust him completely. Former President Petro Poroshenko had the trust of 15% of respondents (11.3% and 3.7%, respectively).
The Ukrainian Armed Forces enjoy the trust of more than 64% of respondents, the National Police 30.7%, law enforcement agencies 30.6%, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine 29.9%, the Prosecutor General’s Office 18.4%, and the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) 15.3%.
Some 22.9% of Ukrainians have confidence in the National Bank of Ukraine, 14.8% in the Cabinet, 13.3% in political parties, and 10.3% in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
The poll was conducted in 24 Ukrainian regions and the city of Kyiv on May 10-18 and involved 2,100 people. The margin of error is between 1.31% and 2.18%.
