Who owns the largest share of the leading MFOs in Ukraine?

Microloans can have annual interest rates reaching thousands of percent.

If you don’t have enough money for the necessary expenses, and taking out a loan from a bank is too troublesome, or you don’t need such a large amount, most likely you will go to either a pawnshop or a microfinance organization (MFO). In both cases, you will receive a relatively small amount in your hands, usually from 5 to 10 thousand hryvnia, however, there is a nuance here.

MFO business during the war - restoration has begun If you do not have valuable property to pledge in a pawnshop, then you will have to use the only alternative - an MFO. In this case, the downside of a loan without collateral and special documents (except for a passport and TIN) will be a high interest rate, which for some microfinance organizations, for example, CreditKassa reaches 3% per day, that is, 1095% per annum.

However, loans at such interest rates are in demand, and over the first 9 months of 2023, Ukrainians took out more than 6 million loans from microfinance organizations worth UAH 29.1 billion. This amount is already more than microloans for the entire 2022 year, although 1.8 times less than in 2021. Despite the fact that UAH 9.4 billion of them are overdue, the owners of microfinance organizations clearly began to earn more than in the first year of a full-scale war.

According to the NBU, there are about 600 microfinance organizations in Ukraine; the main beneficiaries in this area are a much smaller number of firms. They were the third and became the first - the clan of the scrap metal worker and people's deputy from the Opposition Bloc Andrei Kiselyov and their CreditKasa

According to YouControl, the leader of the MFO market in 2022 was the once third CreditKasa, which belongs to Ukr Credit Finance LLC under the control of the Kiselev family. The company received its name from the ex-People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Opposition Bloc Andrey Kiselyov, his sister Tatyana and her husband Ruslan Pavlov, on whom the family companies are registered, including 50% of Ukr Credit Finance.

However, the other 50% belongs to the ex-chairman of the supervisory board of Metinvest, Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky, Amir Aisaturov. Such an alliance seems strange only at first glance, because Andrey Kiselev also started in metallurgy, from 2004 to 2011 working for the Ukrmet company, the largest exporter of Ukrainian scrap metal. Subsequently, he became a member of the youth division of the PR - “Young Regions”, and in 2014, a people’s deputy.

While the founders of CreditKasa, created in 2013, were involved in politics and metallurgy, the MFO itself was growing and by the end of 2022 it became the leader in the microloan market, receiving an income of UAH 2.5 billion. (3 billion 74 million UAH in 2021).

By the way, another 1.1 billion UAH were brought to the Kiselev family and Aimir Aisaturov in 2022 by two more microfinance organizations – Bizposika LLC and Consumer Center LLC. Lithuanian MFO CreditPlus jumped two positions up LLC Aventus Ukraine (TM CreditPlus), which occupied 4th place in 2021 with an income of UAH 2.44 billion, was able to become second in the market in 2022 with a result of 1 billion 377 million UAH.

The owner of the company is Lithuanian businessman Andrejus Trofimovas - he started his business in our country in 2017, having previously had experience in the insurance business in Lithuania, as well as experience in microfinance organizations under several brands in Russia - first BelkaCredit then Nado Deneg. Sponsors Sharia from MyCredit In 2021, LLC “1e Safe Agency of Fast Loans” (TM MyCredit) earned 2 billion 658 million UAH, and in the war year 2022, the company retained its third place in the market, although it earned only 1 billion 111 million UAH.

This happened after the co-owner of 18% of its authorized capital, a well-known former banker and politician Sergei Tigipko, left the company and sold his share to partners in September 2021. The latter were played by the Katsub family, the most prominent representatives of which are Alexander and Sergei Katsub. Alexander Katsuba, when he was deputy chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz, allegedly took part in a number of schemes, in particular, he signed documents to carry out work worth UAH 285 million, which were not carried out.

He could also have been involved in an attempt to withdraw 3.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas from NAC’s property and the theft of gasoline from the enterprise by oligarch Sergei Kurchenko. In 2016, Alexander Katsuba was detained, but already in 2017 he signed a deal with the investigation and paid 100 million hryvnia. He subsequently became known as one of the main sponsors of Shariy's party. The formal owners of LLC “1e Safe Agency of Quick Loans” through LLC “Standard Finance” (owns 80% of the authorized capital) are Natalya Gordienko, the mother of the Katsub brothers, and the ex-wife of former people’s deputy Vladimir Katsuba, and a certain Elena Ekaterinchik, who was involved in PR for the Sharia party in the amount of UAH 1 million in 2019. Lugansk residents with Moneyveo “sank” by 3.5 times and became fourth. For a number of years, the leader of the MFO market, according to Economic Pravda, was Maniveo Quick Financial Help LLC (TM Moneyveo).

But if in 2021, according to the YouControl analytical service, the company’s income amounted to UAH 3 billion 287 million, then in 2022 it turned out to be UAH 946.6 million, that is, 3.5 times less. It is also not entirely clear who is the owner of the company, created in 2013. According to official data, it belongs to Lugansk businessman Mikhail Lizants. At the same time, according to EP, the co-owner of the MFO is another Lugansk resident, Viktor Topolov, who was actively involved in business and political activities in the 2000s.

Having started as a coal businessman, he was then elected three times as a people's deputy, belonged to the “orange camp”, and was minister of the coal industry in 2005. Later he started a construction business in the capital, but in 2011 he sold it to businessman Andrei Verevsky, and in recent years he has kept a low profile.

Miloan by Rodion Butko - business went down sharply Miloan LLC, which issues microloans under the Miloan brand, received a serious financial blow as a result of the war - if in 2021 it had an income of 1 billion 869 million UAH, then in 2022 the revenue collapsed almost 6 times – up to 340 million UAH.

However, this state of affairs is unlikely to have a serious impact on the business of the owner of Miloan LLC, Donetsk businessman Rodion Butko, because his interests in the field of non-bank lending are quite extensive.

What saves the situation is the fact that Rodion Butko also owns the Blago pawnshop chain, which brought him another UAH 250 million in 2022. This makes the businessman the owner of the second largest network of pawnshop institutions in Ukraine.

Non-public Israeli businessmen and AlexCredit The AlexCredit brand operates under the auspices of AlexCredit LLC, which is owned by 5 Israeli businessmen - Boris Handelman, Benish Meni, Ilya Fishman, Joseph Gronekas and Zuk Moshe. During the war year 2022, the LLC earned UAH 160 million, while a year earlier it was UAH 456 million. AlexCredit is not the only financial asset of Israeli businessmen - but nothing is known about their financial company Fintech and Emmas Credit Ukraine, except that they are also involved in lending.

“CreditMarket” of Sergei Tigipko TM “CreditMarket”, under which the Center for Commercial Solutions LLC issues microloans, earned UAH 128 million in 2022 against UAH 474 million in 2021.

As for the owner, he is the already mentioned Sergey Tigipko, previously a former co-owner of TM MyCredit. A native of the Komsomol of what was then Dnepropetrovsk, in the early 90s he retrained as a banker and financier, co-owner of Privatbank.

There was a period of political activity in his life, more than once Tigipko became a minister and twice deputy prime minister of Ukraine, and was a member of the group of Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, from which he was expelled. He tried himself as a presidential candidate, but never rose above deputy prime minister.

In the end, after 2014, Sergei Tigipko finally went into business, working on his TAS financial group, created on the basis of his stake in Privatbank in the 1990s. CreditMarket is part of this business.

KF.UA - things are getting worse KF.UA - the MFO company KF.UA LLC, owned by a certain Vladislav Martynenko, has been operating under this brand since 2018. Literally a year ago, in October 2022, the company belonged to another owner, about whom nothing was known either - Anna Purina.

Even before the sale, the company’s business was not going well - from UAH 450 million in income in 2019, KF.UA LLC’s revenue in 2021 fell to UAH 118.8 million, and in 2022 it amounted to only 17.8 million UAH

As is easy to see, all microfinance organizations were not doing well in 2022, but the efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to protect the country and the functioning of the economy still encourage Ukrainians to increasingly take out microloans. And even though the size of the latter is still 2 times lower than it was before the war, their volumes are growing, which means that the owners of MFOs will not lose money.