Successful entrepreneur and business leader Victoria Tigipko, the wife of Ukrainian Presidential Candidate and potential future Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko, has announced that she will be creating a venture capital and private equity fund to support innovative technology-driven companies and Internet startups in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
The State Agency of Ukraine For Investments and Innovations head Lyudmila Suprun recently met with Altana Capital (formerly Upras Capital) founder Anatoliy Amelin regarding development of state policy in terms of innovative investments and improvement of the investment environment. According to the agency, Altana Capital was invited to participate in the process of creating a national venture fund for investment into innovative projects.
OPIC, The United States’ Overseas Private Investment Corporation, recently announced that it has completely restored its political risk insurance programs for Ukraine, which had been suspended for ten years due to a non-payment disagreement.
The disagreement, which lasted for a decade, was over non-payment of a paltry $17 million sovereign-guaranteed debt incurred by the Ministry of Defence in 1999. OPIC paid a political risk claim on the debt to an insured US supplier, but was never repaid by the Ukrainian side as was called for in the agreement.
Analysts estimate the opportunity cost to Ukraine over this issue in terms of lost US investment into the country could be in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion.
Kommersant reported today that Ukraine’s Nemiroff vodka company is actively looking to sell a majority stake to a strategic private equity investor.
Nemiroff is the third largest vodka producer in the world by sales and is estimated to be worth approximately $300 million.
According to an offering memorandum prepared by ING Bank in Kiev, the company is willing to discuss sale of “up to 100%” of equity. Kommersant quoted sources close to the deal as saying that the impetus to sell is coming from two of the three main shareholders – Yakov Gribov and Anatoly Kipish.
The third partner, founder and chairman Stepan Glus, with a 30% equity stake in Nemiroff, said the company is not slated for sale for the time being but is prepared to consider attracting an investor for development at a global level.
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