Dragon Capital Held Its 8th Annual Investor Conference
KYIV, March 30, 2012 — Dragon Capital is pleased to note the growing interest of international investors in the Ukrainian market and the increasing number of Western funds participating in the 8th Annual Ukraine Investor Conference (March 22-23, 2012).
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This year’s conference participants included 180 representatives of more than 90 leading global and regional mutual funds and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Charlemagne Capital, Danske Capital, CIM, East Capital, ING Investment Management, Prosperity, Spinnaker and others. These companies collectively manage about $5bn in the Ukrainian equity market and over $15bn in bonds issued by Ukrainian corporates. Last year’s event was attended by about 150 foreign investors.
In total, the conference was attended by nearly 250 people — representatives of Western and local investors, politicians and top management of the leading Ukrainian companies. During the one-on-one meetings between investors and listed companies and separate workshops on specific bond and equity investment opportunities the participants were able to obtain the first hand information.
Investors met with top management of nearly 30 leading Ukrainian companies, which plan to raise debt and equity financing on Western markets. Among such companies were MHP, Avangard, Agroton, Astarta, Mriya Agro Holding, Kernel, Motor Sich, DTEK, Coal Energy and other companies, which represent agriculture, oil & gas, machine building, power engineering and other strategically important sectors of the Ukrainian economy.
Tomas Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital, commented on the results of the conference: "We are pleased that despite the rather difficult situation in the Ukrainian economy and not the most favorable investment climate in the country, our conference this year was visited by so many large investors. Ukraine has recovered only a portion of the slide it suffered in the summer 2011, and looks quite attractive compared to its neighbors. However, we understand that before investors decide to invest any new money in Ukraine certain tangible events must occur. For instance, these include the ratification of the Association Agreement with the EU, the completion of negotiations on the price of Russian gas, the resumption of the cooperation program with the IMF. Any of these events could trigger a substantial increase."
Tomas Fiala, CEO, Dragon Capital: “The main reasons of Ukrainian stock indexes underperformance are the delay in talks on gas and lack of financing from the IMF. Also, Ukraine needs to re-launch reforms required to improve the investment climate”
Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine: “The government will submit its proposals to stimulate the development of the Ukrainian stock market within a month”
Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz, former Finance minister of Poland and the author of the Polish “economic miracle”: “For the reforms in Ukraine to succeed politics should be separated from business”
Ihor Shumylo, Director of General Economic Department, NBU: “There are no economic reasons for hryvnia devaluation in the current situation”
Boris Tymonkin, Chairman, Ukrsotsbank (UniCredit): “Too often in Ukraine the creditor is unable to get hold of the security under an overdue loan. Until this mechanism will not work without a hitch, one shouldn’t count on a rapid development of loan funding"
Representatives of international financial organizations Max Alier (IMF) and Andre Kuusvek (EBRD) shared their views on the economic and political situation in Ukraine
Representatives of metallurgy, agriculture and the banking sector told the audience about the state of their markets (pictured above: Charles Beigbeder, Agrogeneration; Ihor Golovakin, Metinvest, Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, Raiffeisenbank Aval)
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance (Galina Pahachuk), NBU (Sergei Nikolaychuk), World Bank (Ruslan Piontkovsky) and Moody’s (Thorsten Nestman) discuss with investors the economic situation in Ukraine
Representatives of Ukrainian companies used the opportunity to tell investors about their achievements, news and development plans (pictured above: Volodymyr Semenov, Motor Sich)
Investors asked direct questions during panel discussions with Ukrainian businesspeople and government representatives
The informal exchange of views during a break between meetings — a key source of information for decision-making
Investors are studying with interest the recent research of Dragon Capital
Dragon Capital’s Annual Ukraine Investment Conference is a unique platform where international investors, Ukrainian politicians and Ukrainian business leaders meet each other to exchange information and opinions
About 8th Annual Investor Conference
During the eight years of its existence, Dragon Capital’s Investor Conference was a landmark event, which raises topical issues and makes public statements of the Ukrainian government. This format allows the international investment funds and banks that are willing to invest in Ukraine, to get answers to their questions from the top officials.
For more information please contact us at [email protected].