In March, the government banned paying the companies in which 10% or more belonged to russians, and in April, it imposed a full embargo on russian goods. And in October, the Cabinet of Ministers banned signing agreements in public procurement with companies that have ultimate beneficiaries from russia or Belarus. That is, we are talking about such beneficiaries that have a decisive impact on the activities of companies — the ban did not affect others.
We decided to see which business with signs of russians or Belarusians received budget contracts. To find such largest contractors, we took the following data:
- from the public procurement analytics module ProBI Prozorro — 2016–2022;
- the RuAssets service for checking links with the aggressor by YouControl — as of October 19, 2022.
PJSC “Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works” — UAH 8.4 billion
This company is one of the most famous from the collection — it manufactures passenger and freight cars, subway cars, spare parts for all of them, and other products of railway rolling stock. The main holders of the company’s shares are:
- Austrian OW Capital Management GmbH (25%)
- English Transbuilding Service Limited (20%)
- Estonian “Delantina” (25%) and “Skinest Finants” (25%).
But the final beneficiaries are Ukrainian Volodymyr Prykhodko through Skinest Finants and Delantina, Ukrainian Nataliia Prykhodko through Delantina, Estonian Oleh Osinovskyi through Skinest Finants, and Russian Stanislav Gamzalov through OW Capital Management GmbH.
The latter has had a stake in the company since 2012, when OW Capital Management GmbH bought the shares of the plant from the TAS group of Serhii Tihipko. Until September 2021, the supervisory board of the company from OW Capital Management GmbH included Dzhakhpar Gamzalov, the father of Stanislav Gamzalov.
In russia, Stanislav Gamzalov, through OW Capital Management, owns several factories producing freight cars, railway locomotive and car parts, bridge and building metal structures, hydraulic power equipment.
In May 2022, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office opened criminal proceedings on the fact of withdrawal of the plant’s funds to the accounts of Russian enterprises. According to the body, the company’s money could be used to finance the violent seizure of state power, change of the state border of Ukraine. At the request of the prosecutor’s office, the corporate rights of the plant were seized. Now, their transfer to ARMA management is being decided.
In 2021, PJSC “Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works” received its largest state contract in the existence of Prozorro. “Ukrzaliznytsia” ordered 100 cars for UAH 3 billion from the plant. The order was made after the visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyy with the then Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklii at the KRCBW — the Minister informed about plans to buy cars from the plant, and the President offered to take exactly 100. Eventually, they decided on 90.
The procurement of cars was conducted according to the negotiation procedure due to the “lack of competition for technical reasons.” The auditors monitored the procurement and determined that the use of negotiation procedure was not sufficiently justified. Ukrzaliznytsia appeals against this decision in court. And meanwhile, last year, it paid for a part of the cars — UAH 1.2 billion. According to the additional agreement, the rest of the goods should be delivered by December 20, 2022.
In 2021, Ukrainian media wrote that the plant purchased components from russia. In particular, we are talking about the supply from the Evraz Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant. The enterprise itself explained the procurement in russia by the low price and the lack of Ukrainian analogues.
The total amount of contracts concluded with Ukrzaliznytsia is UAH 6.5 billion, which is more than 77% of the total amount of state contracts of PJSC “Kryukovsky Railway Car Building Works.”
PJSC “Brovary Road and Construction Department No.50” — UAH 3.5 billion
The company belongs to Viktor Havrylenko (74%), who in the early 2000s headed the state company “Motor Roads of Ukraine”, and Russian Tamila Sviridova (9%).
They also previously had a stake in the JV LLC “Bitunova Ukraine,” but in different years. Sviridova — in 2015-2018, then she was replaced by Havrylenko. In 2021, he became the sole owner of the firm, and subsequently sold the enterprise. JV LLC “Bitunova Ukraine” was the first owner of PJSC “Brovary Road and Construction Department No.50.”
PJSC “Brovary Road Construction Department No.50” specializes in road construction. The company received the largest number of government contracts in 2021 — for UAH 961 million. In particular, last year, the firm won tenders for repairs:
- of the H-07 Kyiv – Sumy – Yunakivka highway for UAH 210 million;
- of the local road M-03 – Sosnova – Tashan for UAH 126 million;
- of the road of national importance P-81 Kazanka – Snihurivka – Antonivka for UAH 107 million.
How many agreements the company has signed this year is impossible to say — some of them could have been concluded during the period when the procurement was allowed to be reported after the end of martial law. Prozorro now contains contracts worth UAH 39 million.
In general, for all years, the enterprise has the largest amount of contracts with the Road Service in Kyiv Oblast — UAH 842 million, the Department of Regional Development of Kyiv Regional State Administration — UAH 579 million, and MC Kyivavtodor — UAH 557 million.
Service Oil LLC — UAH 1.6 billion
The company is registered in Poltava and belongs to the Belarusian OJSC “Pukhovichinefteproduct,” the main shareholder of which is the state production association “Belorusneft.”
Until December 6, 2021, Belorusneft owned Service Oil LLC. However, that year, on December 2, the latter fell under EU sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenka, which were supported by the United States, Britain, and Canada. Belorusneft stated that its partners from outside the EU were not threatened with sanctions for cooperation with it, but still came out of the Ukrainian Service Oil LLC.
Service Oil LLC concluded contracts only with JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya. The company carried out drilling and repair of wells, hydraulic fracturing, seismic exploration. Last year, the company won two contracts for the repair of oil and gas wells at the deposits of Ukrgasvydobuvannya for UAH 391 million. In early 2022, the company concluded an agreement for seismic exploration on the Zhemchuzhna section of the Skydanivska area for UAH 96 million.
On June 16, the court seized the corporate rights of Service Oil LLC in the form of the authorized capital in the amount of almost UAH 1 billion, as well as property worth UAH 3 billion.
According to Nashi Groshi, Belarusian companies were among the leaders of Ukrgasvydobuvannya contractors in 2016-2021 and, accordingly, are among the largest drillers of this Ukrainian state company.
JSC Sumsky Plant of Pumping and Power Engineering “Nasosenergomash” — UAH 1.5 billion
It is one of the largest pump-making companies in the post-Soviet countries. Formally, 90.6% of the shares of the Sumy enterprise are owned by the Cypriot company H.M.S. CAPITAL LIMITED. At the same time, Ukrainian monitoring services of data registration state that the ultimate beneficiary of Nasosenergomash is Vladimir Lukyanenko, a russian citizen.
Until 2014, 83% of Nasosenergomash belonged to the Russian OJSC GMS Group. GMS is a machine-building and engineering holding, a manufacturer of pumping, compressor, and oil and gas equipment, whose assets are located in russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Germany. The main owners of the group are German Tsoi and Vladimir Lukyanenko. The latter is listed as the ultimate beneficiary, having a russian address and passport.
Vladimir Lukyanenko Jr. and his father, Vladimir Lukyanenko Sr., who has Ukrainian citizenship, are also involved in other Sumy companies in the field of energy equipment. Thus, Vladimir Lukyanenko Sr. through Cypriot companies owns JSC “Sumy Machine-Building Science and Production Association,” the beneficiary of which was his son through russian, Swiss, and Cypriot companies. Moreover, Vladimir Lukyanenko Sr. manages JSC Sumy Machine-Building Science and Production Association — Engineering. Through a Cypriot company, he owns 94.5% of the enterprise. Previously, the beneficiaries of the enterprise were Vladimir Lukyanenko Jr., and Bulgarian Maxim Markov.
The most successful year in public procurement for the enterprise was 2019, when it received an order for UAH 848 million. At that time, Nasosenergomash concluded contracts for the supply of turbines and motors (for UAH 284 million) and pumps and compressors (for UAH 300 million) for SE RPCG Zorya-Mashproekt and spare parts for pumps (UAH 180 million) for SE NNEGC “Energoatom.”
In general, these two procuring entities were the main ones for Nasosenergomash:
- SE NNEGC “Energoatom” — contracts for UAH 913 million
- SE RPCG Zorya-Mashproekt, which is part of the SC “Ukroboronprom,” — contracts for UAH 585 million.
In July 2022, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv decided to transfer the corporate rights of Nasosenergomash to the ARMA.
LLC Venta.LTD — UAH 0.92 billion
Dnipro “Venta.LTD” was founded by locals Denys Arzamastsev, Oleksandr Voloshyn, and Borys Murilo, Russian OJSC “Katren,” as well as Serhii Mishko, Henrich and Hanna Ritter from Germany. The Russian company owns 24% of the Ukrainian LLC since 2008. Katren Group of Companies is one of the largest pharmaceutical distributors of russia, owned by Leonid Konobeev and Vladimir Spiridonov.
LLC Venta.LTD is the leader among Ukrainian pharmaceutical distributors by proceeds, the company occupies approximately 15% of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market.
The company has been involved in public procurement since 2016, during this time, it has concluded contracts worth UAH 921 million. In early February 2022, the company signed a direct agreement with the ME “City Hospital No.9” of the Zaporizhzhia City Council for UAH 24.2 million — this is currently its largest contract.
In June, the Russian share in “Venta.LTD” was seized in the framework of criminal proceedings for embezzlement of property, tax evasion, money laundering, and collaborationism. In July, by court decision, this share was transferred to the ARMA. As reported by LLC Venta.LTD, the transfer of corporate rights took place on August 1 on the initiative of the company’s management and in cooperation with Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
These are only the 5 largest contractors with a russian or Belarusian trace — but in general, their list in 2016-2022 was much longer. Currently, procuring entities are obliged to reject companies with ultimate beneficiaries from these two countries in tenders. Until recently, for this, they had to demand an additional piece of paper from the participants — an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Associations. On December 26, procuring entities were granted the opportunity to independently check the necessary information in the register.
At the same time, it is also forbidden to pay the companies with a smaller share of Russian and Belarusian ownership. The DOZORRO project of Transparency International Ukraine proposes to unify the provisions in two different resolutions regarding the definition of persons with whom it is forbidden to sign and fulfill agreements.
This publication was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Source: blog.liga.net
