Business news from Ukraine

According to Experts.news, more than 551,000 companies registered in Ukraine have at least one signatory in addition to the CEO, and the total number of such authorized persons has exceeded 603,000, according to data from the Unified State Register analyzed by Opendatabot.

According to an Opendatabot study published on September 21, 2026, 551,328 companies—or 38% of all registered companies in Ukraine—have an additional signatory. Another 897,893 companies—or 62%—do not have such representatives. Thus, the total database used for the calculation comprises approximately 1.45 million companies.

As of September, there were 603,304 signatories listed in the Unified State Register. In some cases, a single individual has the right to represent several legal entities at once. The record-holder among signatories currently represents 246 companies.
A signatory is a person authorized to perform certain legally significant actions on behalf of a company. Specifically, this includes signing contracts, submitting documents for state registration, and other actions provided for by the powers granted to them.

However, the mere fact that a person is listed in the registry as a signatory does not imply unlimited authority. The Unified State Register may separately specify permitted transactions, restrictions, maximum contract amounts, and other conditions of representation. Therefore, when verifying a counterparty, it is important to assess not only the presence of a signatory but also the specific scope of their rights.

According to Opendatabot’s assessment, the institution of additional signatories has taken on particular practical significance since the start of the full-scale war. Mobilization, communication disruptions, shelling, executives being abroad, or other circumstances may temporarily hinder a director’s ability to perform their duties.
Having another authorized representative allows a company to avoid concentrating all operational processes on a single executive and to continue entering into contracts, completing registration procedures, and performing other actions necessary for business operations.

At the same time, the significant number of companies that a single person may represent increases the importance of verifying such individuals when entering into agreements. It is advisable for a counterparty to verify the validity of a representative’s authority, any restrictions regarding the amount or type of contract, and whether there have been any changes in the Unified State Register.

You can verify the signatories of a specific company and the scope of their registered powers through services that use open data from the Unified State Register.