The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) on April 18 allowed the Ukrainian mining group and steel producer Metinvest, owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, to buy more than 50 percent of the shares in the Dniprovsky coke chemical plant.
The leading coke plant, located in Kamianske, a city of 235,000 people in south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, serves as an important link in the steel production chain in Ukraine.
“The deal was approved, with additional obligations taken on for the company for a long period,” said Oleksiy Tkachuk, the spokesperson of the committee, Interfax reported.
Among the main obligations are to, within 3-7 years after the deal, sell 50-70 percent of plant’s products to non-Metinvest companies at market prices, according to official website of AMCU.
At the same time, just a six months ago the committee opposed the deal, officially stating on Oct. 3 in 2018 that buying shares could lead to monopolization, and significantly restrict competition in certain markets for coke products in the country.
Tricky schemes
Metinvest filed an application for permission to buy the plant with the committee back in September 2015, and over the years the committee reported several times that it was extending the period of its consideration of the deal.
But this was just a process for Metinvest to get official control of the plant.
As it turned out, the plant was de facto under Metinvest’s control by the end of 2013 without any permission from the anti-monopoly committee, according to investigative journalism project Nashi Groshi.
Before the third quarter in 2013, the main shareholder of the plant was Cyprus firm Lanebrook limited, controlled by mining and metallurgical group Evraz, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
In 2007, Evraz group bought the plant together with other assets in Ukraine for $3 billion from Ukraine’s Privat Group, owned by another Ukrainian oligarch – Ihor Kolomoisky.
But by the end of 2013, four offshore companies – Mastinto Trading Limited, Misandyco Holdings Ltd, Salurex Limited and Altana Limited – received equal 23.64 percent stakes in the plant.
According to report made by Ukrainska Pravda in 2015, these offshore companies serve as intermediate structures in the interests of Akhmetov.
Plus, the same offshore companies are also owners of companies controlled by Akhmetov’s group, such as Donetskstal Iron and Steel Works, and Ukraine’s largest coal enterprise – Shakhtoupravlinnya Pokrovske.
Nashi Groshi also discovered that the chief accountant of Dniprovsky Coke Plant in 2016-2017 was Artem Nazim, who previously worked at management positions in companies of the Metinvest Group.
Nazim was replaced with another Akhmetov person – Natalia Yevgenova, who previously worked in other companies of the Metinvest Group and also works as the chief accountant at Yuzhkoks, another leading coke producer in the country.
A year ago, Yevhen Didus, known as the former director of Incor and Co, the largest producer of naphthalene in Europe, also owned by Metinvest Group, was appointed as general director of the Dniprovsky Coke Chemical Plant.
Nevertheless, behind closed doors the anti-monopoly committee ruled in favor of Metinvest. Otherwise, the fine for creating such a monopoly under Ukrainian law could be up to 5 percent of the entity’s income for the last reporting year, which for Metinvest could be almost $600 million.
