Ukraine’s largest energy conglomerate, DTEK Group, owned by Ukraine’s richest oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, will open a Ukrainian energy investment hub in the United Kingdom.
Through the hub, DTEK wants to attract investments into Ukrainian energy projects such as renewables, energy storage and hydrogen power.
“In addition to increasing gas production and improving the country’s grids, these areas have been identified as the priority in our strategy presented in December 2020”, said DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko.
The hub will be run by a new company, DTEK International Ltd, which will open a new office in London by mid-2021.
DTEK also plans to invest in renewable energy in the EU, expand trade with EU countries and become carbon-neutral by 2040.
The group has been active in the U.K. since 2013. Over the past three years, its international capital markets team in London has managed DTEK’s relations with international investors.
In 2019, the group’s wind and solar business, DTEK Renewables, issued green eurobonds to finance the company’s renewable energy projects.
DTEK Renewables is Ukraine’s leading producer of renewable energy, with about 15% of total installed capacity and a revenue of Hr 4.8 billion ($176.5 million) for 2019.
DTEK is also the largest private coal power producer in the country. Although the group has consistently denied having an energy monopoly anywhere in Ukraine, the Anti-Monopoly Committee has fined DTEK Zakhidenergo and D. Trading in late 2020 for abusing their monopoly position in the Burshtyn Energy Island zone.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has charged DTEK with creating and benefitting from the so-called Rotterdam+ formula coal pricing scheme.
Under the scheme, Ukrainian energy consumers have overpaid a total of Hr 38 billion (about $1.4 billion) for electricity to DTEK’s alleged benefit, according to NABU.
The Anti-Monopoly Committee recently dismissed a probe into uncompetitive market conditions that allegedly resulted due to the formula’s adoption.
