Metinvest, ATB Market are Ukraine’s largest corporations, Forbes reports

Steelmaker Metinvest is the largest private enterprise
based in Ukraine, according to a survey published by the forbes.ua news site on
Oct. 2. Its 2019 profit was UAH 8.8 bln, its revenue was UAH 278 bln and the
holding employs 66,000 people. Billionaire Rinat Akhmetov owns three-quarters
of its shares, billionaire Vadim Novinsky owns one-quarter and the general
director is Yuriy Ryzhenkov. 

Ukraine’s second-largest corporation is grocery
retailer ATB Market, whose 2019 profit was UAH 4.4 bln, revenue was UAH 104.9
bln and number of employees was 49,300. Its owners are Hennadiy Butkevych,
Yevhen Yermakov and Viktor Karachun, each of whose wealth was estimated at USD
433 mln by the annual survey of the focus.ua news site this year. Its general
director is Borys Markov.

The third-largest corporation is sunflower oil
producer and farmer Kernel Holding, which earned a 2019 profit of UAH 3.2 bln,
revenue of UAH 93 bln, and employs 14,000 people. Its main shareholder (39%
stake), board chairman and general director is the 46-year-old Andrii
Verevskyi, whose wealth was estimated at USD 337 mln by focus.ua this year.
Kernel’s shares are traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The remaining top 10 enterprises are retailer Fozzy
Group (main shareholder Volodymyr Kostelman), power generator DTEK Energy (sole
owner Akhmetov), ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (owned by Mittal Steel), poultry
producer MHP (main shareholder Yuriy Kosiuk), tobacco distributor Tedis Ukraine
(owner Boris Kaufman), steelmaker Zaporizhstal (main shareholders Akhmetov,
Novinsky) and retailer Epitsentr K (sole shareholders are billionaires
Oleksandr and Halyna Hereha).

Zenon Zawada: This list
is an adequate reflection of the main sectors of Ukraine’s economy:
Soviet-inherited heavy industry, food and agriculture and retail. Ukraine’s
economy is so static that the majority of the largest companies have remained
the same for the last ten years. The exceptions – rising rather dynamically –
have been the giant, nationwide retailers, who have been the main engines of
economic activity since the war erupted in Donbas in 2014. 

Only two of the Top Ten enterprises are open to
investment. Besides Kernel (KER PW), the shares of MHP (MHPC LI) are traded on
the London Stock Exchange. This reflects the closed nature of Ukraine’s
economy. We expect this list to remain mostly the same for as long as the war
in Donbas is active. No major investment or entrepreneurial activity will occur
for as long as the war is being waged.