Sanctions and the “Russian trace” in companies with Polish founders/beneficiaries in Ukraine

As of February 2024, there are 3,635 Polish companies operating in Ukraine.

Specialists from the YouControl R&D center found that less than half of them published financial statements for 2022 and had more than UAH 63 billion in total revenue at the end of 2022.

More than half of Polish companies are registered in the Lviv region and Kyiv. In the ownership structure of 18 legal entities, in addition to participants/beneficiaries from Poland, there are citizens of Russia and Belarus. In what areas does Polish business operate in Ukraine and which companies are among the top five in terms of revenue and authorized capital - in the YouControl study.

What was analyzed: data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Formations (USR) for participation in the authorized capital of Polish companies and individuals resident in Poland. We checked companies with a share of the authorized capital of 25% or more and/or whose beneficiaries are Polish citizens. Legal entities with the statuses “Discontinued” and “Canceled” were excluded from the list of companies under study.

Billions of hryvnias in authorized capital

As of February 2024, there are 3,635 companies with Polish capital operating in Ukraine. More than half (58.7%) of them are registered in the Lviv region - 1,116 and in Kyiv - 1,016.

About 31% of the Polish companies studied in Ukraine are involved in the wholesale and retail trade, 17% in the processing industry. The main focus of more than 8% of companies is professional, scientific and technical activities. And about 7% of enterprises operate in the field of administrative and support services.

The total amount of authorized capital of 3,635 companies exceeds UAH 15 billion. Of these, at least more than UAH 2.8 billion is a share of 25% of the authorized capital of Polish companies and resident individuals, which reflects the level of influence of business on the Ukrainian economy.

The top five companies by largest authorized capital included:

• JSC "KREDOBANK" - 2.2 billion UAH and LLC "FINANCIAL COMPANY "PRIVATE INVESTMENTS" - 950.1 million UAH, are part of the banking group "Kredobank", the controller of which is the Polish joint-stock bank "General Savings Bank".
• LLC "BARLINEK INVEST" - 1.3 billion UAH and LLC "TSERSANIT INVEST" - 370.5 million UAH. The beneficiary of both companies is Polish entrepreneur Michal Solowov, the richest man in Poland in 2023 according to the Polish edition of Forbes.
• RABEN UKRAINE LLC - UAH 662.9 million, is part of the Dutch group of companies Raben Group and operates in logistics, warehousing, domestic and international road, intermodal transportation, sea and air cargo support and fresh food logistics.

According to the data “Financial reporting of enterprises (annual)”, published by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine on the Unified State Open Data Web Portal, about 30% of the total number of companies studied (1089) published their financial statements for 2022. Their total revenue at the end of 2022 is more than UAH 63 billion.

• LLC "RADEKHOVSKY TSUKOR" - UAH 6.98 billion, the beneficiary of which is Vladimir Matkivsky through the Polish company LLC "PFEFER & LANGEN INVESTMENTS".
• UKRAINIAN-POLISH JV IN THE FORM OF MODERN-EXPO LLC - UAH 3.9 billion, part of the group of companies of the same name, the key persons of which are Polish entrepreneur Bogdan Lukasik and Ukrainian Peter Pylypyuk.
• SE "LPP UKRAINE" JOINT STOCK COMPANY "LPP" - UAH 3.7 billion, owned by the Polish company LPP, operating in the field of light industry and retail - brands Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and SiNSAY.
• INTER CARS UKRAINE LLC - UAH 3.5 billion, which is part of the Inter Cars Group network, founded by the Polish company Inter Cars SA - a distributor of automotive parts and auto products in Central and Eastern Europe.
• LLC "BARLINEK INVEST" - UAH 3.14 billion, manufacturer of multi-layer wooden floors.

Sanctions and the “Russian trace” in companies with Polish founders/beneficiaries

In the ownership structure of 18 companies from the list under study, in addition to participants/beneficiaries from Poland, there are citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. In particular, PROAVTO LTD LLC, UKRA POL LLC and PROAVTO LLC.

The beneficiary of these companies, in addition to Polish resident Sylvester Szymalak, is also Mikhail Vashurkin. In July 2023, by Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 364/2023, he was included in the list of individuals to whom personal sanctions are applied. Until September 2022, Mikhail Vashurkin was a member of the Scientific and Technical Limited Liability Society "Azimut". This is a Russian company that supplies electrical equipment to enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation.

Also, another company from the list, LLC NEW KHORTITSA, has information about the imposition of sanctions on one of the company’s co-owners. Its beneficiaries are Polish citizen Rafal Jacek Bielecki and ex-People's Deputy of Ukraine Vyacheslav Boguslaev. Mr. Boguslaev is included in the sanctions lists of Ukraine, the EU and Switzerland.

Another 19 companies from the sample belong to a holding/group, another member of which is registered under the laws of the Russian Federation. For example, these are 4 companies from the Cersanit financial and industrial group, the key person of which is the aforementioned Michal Solovov. And also two companies from the Cargill financial and industrial group. The international group of companies Cargill in Ukraine is engaged in the production and trade of grains and oilseeds, processing of sunflower and soybean seeds.

Note: A financial-industrial group is, in a general sense, a collection of companies from the financial and/or industrial sectors that belong to one or a group of ultimate beneficial owners and interact with each other to achieve common goals, such as obtaining financial benefits or optimizing production processes ( henceforth we will use “FIG” or “group”).

In total, 77 companies are/are connected or related to 56 financial and industrial groups that are added to the YouControl system. At the same time, several companies from the list under study may belong to one financial and industrial group, or one company may be associated with several financial industrial groups at the same time.

For example, TOKOVSKY GRANITE QUARRY LLC, whose participants are Polish citizen Zenon Kiskel (50% of the authorized capital), Ukrainian Kirill Soloviev and GRANITE INVESTMENTS LLC (40% of the authorized capital). The participants of the latter are Olesya Boyko, Ksenia Shevchenko and Valentin Zaruba. According to the public movement HONESTLY, Olesya Boyko is the common-law wife of Ukrainian ex-People’s Deputy Sergei Khlan. And Valentin Zaruba was an assistant to the ex-people's deputy of Ukraine of the 8th convocation, Alexander Zholobetsky.

Among the Polish businesses studied in Ukraine, there are 17 companies that are part of the Chisto financial and industrial group, which supplies equipment and provides cleaning, washing and cleaning services. The key person of the group is Valery Makitsky, who, according to information from the Unified State Register, is a citizen of Poland, but until June 2022 had Belarusian citizenship.