Business news from Ukraine

AMC PERMITS DRAGON CAPITAL TO ACQUIRE FINANCE.UA, MINFIN.COM.UA

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has permitted the Dragon Capital investment company to acquire over 50% of the shares of Treeum Holdings Limited, the owner of the Finance.ua and Minfin.com.ua publications, as well as Finline, Bank Online and Multi.ua.
“Permission is granted to Dragon Capital Investments Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) to acquire shares of Treeum Holdings Limited (Larnaca, Cyprus), which grants that 50% of the votes in the company’s management body are exceeded,” the committee said on its website on Monday.
According to the information on the holding’s website, Treeum is a Ukrainian online platform that compares and sells financial products, supports an online currency exchange platform, reliable ratings and statistics, as well as news, comments and professional analytics.
The revenue of Finance.ua in 2019 amounted to about UAH 17.8 million, net profit – about UAH 0.5 million, that of Minfinmedia – UAH 36.9 million and almost UAH 1 million, respectively, Banking Class – UAH 10.9 million and UAH 0.1 million.
Multi.ua and Finline last year saw revenues of UAH 6.6 million and UAH 1.3 million, respectively, and a net loss of UAH 0.7 million and UAH 2.3 million.
According to the public register, Ksenia Vaisman, a Russian citizen living near Kyiv, is indicated as the beneficiary of Treeum Holdings Limited.
This year, USAID Financial Sector Transformation Project (FST) financed the launch of the LIGA.Money platform by LigaBusinessInform Investment Agency. According to the agency, NV and Finclub also participated in the competition, while the companies of Treeum Holdings were not admitted to it.
Dragon Capital is one of the largest investment companies in Ukraine. It works in the field of direct investment and financial services, provides a full range of investment banking and brokerage services to corporate and private clients. The ultimate beneficiary of Dragon Capital in the public register is a Czech citizen, President of the European Business Association Tomas Fiala.
Fiala is the owner of the NV media holding, which includes the eponymous magazine, portal and radio.

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COMPETITION AGENCY FINES NOVO NORDISK

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has made a decision on the case of violation of competition law by the pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk, fining it and its distributors UAH 188 million, according to the AMCU website.
“Thanks to the introduced mechanism for providing after-sales discounts, distributors of the Novo Nordisk group companies received additional income significantly higher than 10%, as provided by the legislation of Ukraine, and in some cases – up to 80%. The chain of opaque pricing led to an unjustified overstatement of the selling prices for Novo Nordisk medicines and provided distributors with competitive advantages, without which other participants in the sales of Novo Nordisk medicines could not compete with them,” the message says.
It is clarified that it is about setting prices for medicines intended for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, problems with growth retardation and for the treatment of hemophilia by Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark), Novo Nordisk Health Care AG (Switzerland) and a number of pharmaceutical distributors and pharmacies: Medpharkom LLC, Medpharkom-Center PrJSC, BaDM LLC, BaDM-B LLC, Pharmacy 3I LLC, Ganza PrJSC, Pharmadis LLC and Medpharm LLC.
AMCU fined Novo Nordisk A/S UAH 134 million, Novo Nordisk Health Care AG UAH 1.7 million, PrJSC Medpharkom-Center UAH 28.7 million, BaDM Group UAH 16.7 million, LLC Pharmacy 3I LLC UAH 680,000, PrJSC Ganza UAH 340,000, LLC Medpharm UAH 5.5 million.
Production at Medpharkom LLC and Pharmadis LLC was discontinued due to the liquidation of the companies.

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ANTIMONOPOLY COMMITTEE OF UKRAINE STARTS INVESTIGATION ON POSSIBLE COAL PRICE FIXING OF STATE MINES

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has started an investigation on the indices of possible anti-competitive coordinated actions when fixing price on the energy coal of state-run mines for the needs of thermal power plants (TPP) and combined heat and power supply plants (CHPP).
“The committee established that within 2017-2018 Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine held meetings with state-owned enterprise Derzhvuhlepostach, PJSC Donbasenergo, LLC DTEK Energo, Ukrinterenergo State Foreign Trade Company, PJSC Cherkasy Khimvolokno, LLC TehNova company to reach the agreements over fixing prices for coal products of state-run enterprises for TPPs and CHPs that is confirmed by the protocols of these meetings,” reads by regulator-issued report.
According to the AMCU, these companies are potential competitors in the electricity and steam coal markets, respectively, the support of these companies to increase prices for coal products for TPPs and CHPs to a certain level could lead to distortion of competition.
In this regard, the committee began consideration of the case regarding anti-competitive actions of these companies, violation by the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of law on the protection of economic competition in the form of inducing business entities to take anti-competitive concerted actions and promotion of such violations.
As reported, in recent years Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry during meetings recommended prices for coal sales of state mines for thermal power plants.

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TIGIPKO FINED BY ANTIMONOPOLY COMMITTEE OF UKRAINE

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has fined PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky plant (Kyiv) UAH 136,000 for submission of inaccurate information in 2018 in relation to seven companies.
According to the decision made on May 20 by the competition agency, unreliable information was submitted while Sergiy Tigipko received permission to concentrate indirectly the Kuznya on Rybalsky plant’s shares in 2018 through Evinz Limited.
According to the decision, the committee on October 18, 2018 granted permission for concentration, based on information about the relationship of control only with Bud-Renovatsiya LLC and Land Development Ltd. Plus.
At the same time, on December 28, 2018, the committee received a petition from the authorized representative of PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky plant, which said: the shipyard is also connected by control relations with a number of subsidiaries – the House of Culture, the Medical Sanitary Department, LK-Metallurgy, catering subsidiary Parus, Housing-Operational Office-LK, Vnesheconomservice and Kyivgeist Investment LLC (all based in Kyiv).
Thus, the House of Culture and the Medical Sanitary Department also lease their own real estate, namely office, industrial and warehouse premises within Kyiv city.
According to the committee, the cumulative share of participants in the concentration in 2016-2018 of the rental industrial real estate market within Kyiv city does not exceed 5%, therefore, the provision of inaccurate information did not affect the committee’s decision to give permission for concentration.

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ANTIMONOPOLY COMMITTEE PERMITES BUSINESSMAN VADIM NOVINSKY TO ACQUIRE STAKE IN YUDZHIN DEVELOPER

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has permitted Komisiano Investments Ltd. (Limassol, Cyprus) of businessman Vadim Novinsky to acquire a stake in the charter capital of Yudzhin LLC (Kyiv), granting over 50% of the votes in the management body of the latter.
“This transaction is carried out within the implementation of the development strategy of the real estate business. In this connection, the holding decided to build up the majority stake in the Yudzhin company,” Smart-holding told Interfax-Ukraine.
Yudzhin LLC was created in 2001. Its core business is the development of construction projects.
Its charter capital is UAH 682.14 million.

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ANTIMONOPOLY COMMITTEE OF UKRAINE APPROVES CHINA’S BOCE’S APPLICATION TO BUY STAKE IN PFTS

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has approved an application of China’s Bohai Commodity Exchange (BOCE) to acquire a stake in the share capital of PJSC PFTS Stock Exchange (Kyiv), the press service of the committee has told Interfax-Ukraine. As reported, BOCE early May 2018 asked the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for preliminary conclusions on the acquisition of over 25% of shares in PFTS. The application was returned, as information was not disclosed in a proper way. Late September, the Chinese exchange repeatedly submitted the documents.
PFTS Stock Exchange is one of the oldest in the Ukrainian stock market. In 2017, the volume of exchange contracts on the PFTS amounted to UAH 64.34 billion, and this indicator was less only compared with the Perspectiva stock exchange (UAH 127.43 billion), but it is more than at the Ukrainian Exchange (UAH 13.41 billion). The main volume of trading fell on government bonds – UAH 57.99 billion, while the turnover of shares amounted to UAH 3.16 billion, bonds of enterprises – UAH 3.19 billion.
PFTS in 2017 received a net profit of UAH 0.82 million against a net loss of UAH 1.78 million a year earlier, increasing revenues by 61.5%, to UAH 9.45 million.
Its main shareholders are Parvana Ltd. with 8.9034% of shares, Crooxton Limited – 9.0596%, Primeview Ltd. – 8.4973%, Dakal Ltd. – 9.372% and Boline Ltd. – 9, 2158%, which beneficiaries are unknown.

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