Water producer Voda UA (Kyiv) plans to increase export supplies of Carpathian high-mountain waters under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Vysokohirna due to a significant reduction in the domestic market caused by the military invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation.
The owner and founder of the group of companies Dmytro Nikiforov told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday about the launch of the Support Ukraine, Buy Ukrainian project to promote Ukrainian brands abroad.
According to the data on the project website https://supportukrainianbusiness.com/, it was created to encourage Europeans to buy Ukrainian products to support Ukrainian business, which in turn helps the Ukrainian military, volunteers and civil organizations.
So, since the military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Voda UA has already provided UAH 3.5 million worth of its products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU), volunteer organizations, bomb shelters and other people in need.
“There can be no question of any business in Russia or with Russian business in any form,” Nikiforov said, pointing to the consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
According to Nikiforov, now the Voda UA plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region is operating normally, while after the start of the war it experienced problems with logistics.
“Logistics was disrupted for just two weeks. Nobody wanted to go to Kyiv, and the invaders were right near Kyiv, and half the country was cut off for delivery. Now everything is working as usual. There are problems with consumables from suppliers. For example, the Hostomel glass factory, where our legendary bottle is produced suffered quite a lot,” Nikiforov said.
At the same time, the Voda UA office in Kyiv is closed, and its employees work remotely. The company continues to pay office employees 75% of the pre-war wage rate, including those who serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Voda UA is a group of companies engaged in the extraction of Carpathian high mountain waters under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Vysokohirna. The owner of the group of companies is Dmytro Nikiforov.
Creditwest Bank (Kyiv) unreasonably blocks the property that is pledged by it on the repaid loan, the owner of the group of companies Voda UA, Karpatska Dzherelna Vysokohirna, Horianka, Dmytro Nikiforov, has said.
“After all obligations under the loan agreement have been fulfilled, the bank continues to hold the property in pledge, conducts incomprehensible correspondence and constantly asks us to provide certain documents regarding financial reporting, our turnover in other banks,” he said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
“They made it very clear to us … that they are not going to release pledge from our property,” Nikiforov added.
According to him, the obligations of his companies on the loan to Creditwest Bank were fulfilled on October 1 and, according to the loan agreement, the bank had to remove the encumbrance from the pledge within five days.
Nikiforov clarified that in 2018 the companies attracted a loan from Creditwest Bank in the amount of UAH 15 million to replenish working capital and finance investment projects. Later, according to the owner, he sold one of the companies that was the borrower for this loan, and after a while this company stopped serving him.
For the purpose of settlements, Nikiforov began to negotiate with the bank, at the same time the bank sold the corresponding non-performing loan to a financial company owned by the persons who own the company that stopped servicing the loan, the owner of Voda UA noted.
“Later, the financial company, bypassing the lender, tried to contact me to recover my property as a surety to repay this loan … In this case, we see a very clear algorithm for removing the unscrupulous borrower from liability,” Nikiforov said.
In his opinion, Creditwest Bank can block the pledge in the interests of the partner of its chairman of the board.
“When the story with the loan transfer took place, chairman of the board Ihor Tikhonov … suggested that I transfer part of the business to my business partner. On what conditions I didn’t listen, as I interrupted the conversation,” Nikiforov said.
He stressed that he plans to collect funds from the bank in accordance with the procedure established by law for each day of delay in the unreleased encumbrance from the pledge. In addition, Nikiforov is going to apply to law enforcement agencies regarding possible personal corruption motives of the bank’s management.
ACCUSES, BLOCKING, CREDITWEST BANK, PROPERTY, TURKEY, VODA UA
