Business Week: dekulakization of Zhevaho, where Suprunenko and Dobkins invest, searches at DCH

Business life is in full swing - for some, the past week will be remembered for the pressure from government agencies, for others, for new opportunities. The police organized a series of simultaneous searches of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky's offices across the country, and bank card limits were reduced for cardholders, while the owners of Kyivkhlib and Kernel are building up their land banks step by step.

A real gas alternative has emerged - an open route for gas from Greece, but Ukraine is also increasing biogas production.

For other important news affecting business and business activity, read the digest LIGA .net.

Salaries of customs officers are being reformed - salaries range from UAH 30.5 to 90.2 thousand. Plus allowances and bonuses

The salary of a customs officer will consist of three parts - a base salary, allowances (up to 90% of the salary) and bonuses (up to 30%). This was reported by LIGA.net with reference to the Ministry of Finance, the new remuneration procedure will take effect on June 1, 2025.

Inspectors in specialized areas (customs control and clearance, audit, prevention of customs offenses) will have higher salaries than in other groups of customs competencies (legal, financial, personnel, logistics).

But at the same time, the salaries of high-level specialists in non-core areas will be higher than the salaries of middle and basic level employees in core areas.

For example:

• .

salary of a specialist of high level in the core area - UAH 36,800;

• Salary of a specialist of high level in non-core area - UAH 34,900;
• Salary of a specialist of medium level in the core area - UAH 33,700;
• Salary of a specialist of basic level in the core area - UAH 30,500 xml-ph-0019@dee

  Salaries at customs will be slightly lower.

  IT professionals will receive 35-45% more due to critical importance.

  The head of the State Customs Service will have a salary of UAH 90,200, and the head of the customs office - UAH 54,100.

  Salaries are tied to the subsistence level.

  Police take on Yaroslavsky - 49 searches a day

  

  On Thursday, May 29, the Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police conducted 49 simultaneous searches in the offices of the DCH group owned by Oleksandr Yaroslavsky in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. The reason is the investigation into the case against the former chairman of the board of Ukrtatnafta (Kremenchuk refinery). "The companies to which the fuel was shipped [from the Kremenchuk refinery] were not the final recipients of the proceeds from its further sale. For the most part, these funds were transferred on the basis of sham agreements to enterprises of the financial and industrial group," the police report.

  DCH considers these massive searches illegal and calls them pressure on the group's business activities.

  "We are accused of being fictitious companies. What kind of fictitiousness can we talk about when DCH Group companies are operating businesses with real economic activity," commented Yevhen Moroz, Head of Public Relations at DCH, on the searches.

  The Group also points out that although Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi was one of the shareholders of Ukrtatnafta, he never had any influence on decision-making in the company, did not receive any dividends and did not control the company's activities.

  Starting from November 2022, Ukrtatnafta's shareholders are Naftogaz of Ukraine (43.05%) and the state (56.94%).

  • Ukrtatnafta owns Ukraine's largest oil refinery in Kremenchuk. Until November 2022, Ukrtatnafta's shareholders were Naftogaz of Ukraine and the Privat group of Ihor Kolomoisky. on November 7, 2022, Ukrtatnafta, along with several other enterprises , became the property of the state .
  • Former first acting chairman of the board of Ukrtatnafta Ruslan Liapka received three criminal suspicions, and former chairman of the board Pavlo Ovcharenko was put on the wanted list .

  Banker Stetsevych is building a new village in the Carpathians, but demand for cement has frozen in the country

  

  Former Deputy Chairman of the Board of Universal Bank (monobank) and Oschadbank Andriy Stetsevych has taken on the development of a new village near Bukovel. LIGA.net writes about that Kryla Karpaty by Edem is a development project with buildings of 100,000 square meters. The article discusses not only partners, budget, and the actual stage of project implementation, but also credit restrictions, currency limits, privatization of state-owned banks, investment real estate, and the market of the future. Stetsevych also advised where Ukrainians should invest their capital.

  But one of the indicators of the construction market - demand for cement - is not moving. In an interview with LIGA.net, Pavlo Kachur, Chairman of the Association of Cement Producers, spoke about trade relations with neighbors, the domestic market, investments and prospects for the cement market recovery.

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  "Domestic cement market has been stagnating for the third year in a row," Ukrcement's CEO

  Suprunenko is buying up hectares. But lags behind Verevsky's wife

  

  Alviva Group of Vyacheslav Suprunenko has entered the Ukrainian agricultural market. This was reported to LIGA.net by the company. "This will allow the group to establish full control over the entire production cycle - from growing its own grain to processing and producing food products," the company says.

  Since 2024, Alviva Group has formed a land bank of 4000 hectares in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, and this year expects the first harvest of wheat and sunflower.

  In 2025, wheat will account for 26% of the group's acreage, and in 2026, 100% of the group's land bank will be allocated to it.

  Today, Alviva Group exports its finished products to more than 30 countries. That is why the launch of the agricultural business is a logical and strategically important step, the company emphasizes .

  • In August 2023, Suprunenko privatized the former Rosinka soft drink factory. In November of the same year, the businessman took over Kyivkhlib and its factories.

  Also, LIGA.net reports that in the 16 months of the agricultural land market for legal entities, only one company has come close to the legal limit of 10,000 hectares, having acquired about 9,000 hectares. This was stated by the Minister of Agrarian Policy Vitaliy Koval .

  This company is Zemelnyi Krai LLC. The company was established in 2023, and, according to the system LIGA360, belongs to Tetiana Verevska, the wife of businessman Andrii Verevskyi (Kernel).

  Greece and manure instead of Russia. New gas sources for Ukraine

  

  The gas transmission system operators of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine have officially announced the launch of a joint product to supply natural gas from Greece to Ukraine through the Trans-Balkan Corridor. The capacity of the transit route to Ukraine will be about 1 billion cubic meters per year. This is reported on the website of the Ukrainian GTS Operator.

  The starting point of the route is the Revithousa LNG terminal in Greece. It is located on the island of the same name west of the city of Athens. The terminal was built in 1999 and is operated by DESFA. The terminal's capacity is 6.9 billion cubic meters per year .

  The key feature of the project is that gas can only be used for supply to Ukraine, without access to virtual outlets in intermediate countries. This allowed for a 25% discount from standard tariffs (46% for Ukrainian outlets).

  • The Trans-Balkan Gas Pipeline is a gas pipeline that was previously used to supply Russian gas to the Balkans. In 2019, a part of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline infrastructure in Turkey and Bulgaria was included in the Balkan Stream gas pipeline.
  • In 2023, market demand assessment jointly conducted by the GTS operators of Ukraine, Romania and Moldova showed a need for 20 mcm per day for transportation via the Trans-Balkan route to Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities.

  At the same time, by the end of 2025, Ukraine plans to launch biomethane production with a total volume of 111 million cubic meters. This was announced by Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval .

  "This year, 111 million cubic meters of biomethane will be produced, and this is just the beginning. After all, our production potential is estimated at almost 22 billion cubic meters per year," Koval said.

  With respect to Kosyuk. Dobkin family invests in poultry farms away from Kharkiv

  

  Mykhailo and Dmytro Dobkin's chicken business brings them UAH 4 billion in revenue per year, writes LIGA.net. The scheme is as follows: in 2025, Mykhailo and Dmytro Dobkin created the parent company Avesterra Group, which combined their assets. It is owned by the brothers on a parity basis, Dmytro Dobkin said in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda .

  The group includes Volodymyr-Volyn Poultry Farm, Lutsk Agricultural Company and Volodymyr-Volyn Agricultural Company. All assets are engaged in chicken production: "Some grow, some process, some sell. It's easier to work this way.".

  The group produces 53,000 tons of broiler chicken meat under the Chebaturochka and Epicur brands, but plans to reach 120,000 tons. In June, it plans to open a new processing plant, in which it has invested €60 million. "It is located in Volyn, 30,000 square meters, with new treatment facilities. Only MHP has such facilities, as far as I know," Dobkin said.

  Avesterra's share of the Ukrainian market is 5%. Dobkin names Dniprovsky Poultry Plant in Nikopol and Agro-Oven Corporation with assets in Dnipropetrovs'k region as its main competitors.

  "MHP is not [...] a competitor, it is a deep one. MHP is half of the market, and the other half of the market is everyone else," Dobkin said .

  The number of bank cards is growing in Ukraine. Which banks are in the lead

  

  There are 137.4 million cards in Ukraine. In the first quarter of 2025, the number of active payment cards in Ukraine increased by 4.1% to 5.42 million. At the same time, the increase in active cards, which were used at least once a month, was only 1.2%, i.e. by 0.71 million, to 59.4 million , LIGA.net reportswith reference to the NBU.

  The largest number of cards was issued by PrivatBank - 58.17 million, which is 2.6% more than at the beginning of the year. Of these, 31.97 million are active (+1.4%).

  Universal Bank (monobank), which holds the second place, recorded a decline for the first time in a long time: the number of active cards decreased by 0.6% to 9.72 million. Nevertheless, the total number of cards increased by 4.1% to 24.18 million.

  Oschadbank, the third largest bank by number of cards, showed the highest dynamics among the leaders: +8.4% (to 19.22 million in total) and +2.9% by active cards (to 8 million).

  A-Bank is in fourth place in terms of overall growth, having added 9.3%, or 0.81 million, to 9.52 million cards. Its active cards reached 1.84 million (+2.8%). According to this indicator, it was ahead of Raiffeisen Bank, which increased 2.38 million active cards (+0.7%).

  Alliance Bank showed the largest percentage increase in active cards - +45.7%, or 0.03 million, to 0.11 million. In total, the bank has 0.32 million cards (+0.18 million per quarter).

  FUIB moved up to 6th place by the number of cards in circulation - 6.4 million (+4.2%), but the growth of active cards was minimal - only 0.2%, to 1.3 million.

  Despite a 12.5% decline in the total number of cards (to 2.2 million), the top ten includes Sens Bank. Its active cards decreased slightly by 0.1% to 0.58 million.

  The top ten by the number of active cards also included: Ukrsibbank - 0.89 million, Ukrgasbank - 0.50 million, OTP Bank - 0.40 million.

  zhevago's "dekulakization" continues . Who buys his "pharma"

  

  According to LIGA.net, Leonid Kryuchkov and his Sky Development are buying the debts of Konstantin Zhevago's Arterium pharmaceutical company and trying to take control of his companies.

  Volodymyr Fomichev's article says that the story of Arterium is similar to Rosava: the company's property was pledged to Finance and Credit, and when it all went bust, it ended up at auctions.

  Arterium Corporation Konstantin Zhevago is one of the largest players in the pharmaceutical market. The corporation, which is known for such brands as Mukaltin, L-lysine escinate, Herpevir and Savior, is currently going through a tough time, and it is all because of an old problem that has long plagued all of Konstantin Zhevago's businesses: bank debts Finance and Credit .

  At the end of March this year, Sky-Development bought out 2.5 billion of Arterium's debts and pledged the property complexes of Zhevago's flagship pharmaceutical corporation, Galichpharm and Kyivmedpreparat. According to Sky Development, the total amount of loan claims reaches UAH 3.5 billion .

  Who is Sky-Development, how is it going to manage its new pharmaceutical business, and what does Halychpharm think about it - in the analysis LIGA.net .

  Reduction of card limits. What's next?

  

  Anastasia Ishchenko writes in LIGA.net that starting June 1, limits on card transfers will be reduced again - from UAH 150,000 per month to UAH 100,000. This will apply to both card transfers and IBAN payments.

  The limits were first introduced in October 2024 to reduce the shadow economy and combat money laundering and drop schemes. After all, the NBU's analysis showed that up to UAH 200 billion could pass through drop cards annually.

  The article reads as follows

  • how limits on card transfers will change;
  • what are the ways to increase the limits;
  • whether banks and the NBU plan to cancel the limits soon.

  Fighting against gray iPhones - Techno Hedgehog is coming to light

  

  The Techno Yizhak electronics chain is preparing for a transformation: in a month and a half, it will split into two separate brands, Yizhak and Techno Yizhak, change its corporate identity and focus on selling accessories. According to the company's co-owner, Oleksiy Guliy, this is part of a broader strategy to legalize the business.

  The update comes amid increased attention to unofficial imports of equipment.

  After accusations of selling unlicensed iPhones in 2024,, the chain was inspected and paid fines. Now the company is working on authorization with ASBIS-Ukraine, the official distributor of Apple in Ukraine.

  As reports Forbes Ukraine, the company is updating the look of the symbolic character and opening the first stores in the new style. The positioning is also changing - Yizhak aims to become a leader in sales of protective glass and phone cases. According to Guliy, accessories are more profitable in terms of margins.

  The entrepreneur claims that all the equipment in Yizhok is official, although the chain does not yet have reseller status. In comments to Forbes, representatives of the distributor clarified that the authorization process is ongoing and can take up to six months.

  • Igor Khyzhnyak, CEO of the Comfy chain of stores , suggests blocking smartphones, imported and sold with tax evasion. According to him, 80% of all sales in the gray market are Apple products. Last year, the share of gray iPhones was 75% .