This is yet another proof of the company escaping the so-called WOG bankruptcy.
Ekonomicheskiye Novosti online publication names this event a milestone for large businesses.
Recently, mass media reported that WOG Group began restructuring its credit portfolio at the state-owned Savings Bank (JSC “State Savings Bank of Ukraine”). Before that, few were talking aloud about the Financial Restructuring Law passed in 2016, even though this law was actively supported by IMF, EBRD, Ernst & Young and other global experts. The recent precedent with WOG, aimed to preserve steady growth rate and continue investing in the opening of new gasoline filling stations, may become a telling example for large Ukrainian businesses requiring a financial injection, the economic herald writes.
It is also worth noting that in the past, Dmytro Firtash showed interest in a financial relationship with WOG.
As of today, WOG shareholders include Stepan Ivakhiv, Sergey Lagur.
So, according to business media, devaluation of the national currency led to a substantial decline of the purchasing capacity of Ukrainian population over several years. Service and food companies were the first to feel the effect of this trend. After the crisis of recent years, many companies were forced to wind up their investment activity and focus on repaying loans.
‘In the meantime, the Financial Restructuring Law passed back in 2016, so unpopular among the mass media, makes positive effect on the national economy, taking large companies “literally back from the bankruptcy threshold”. This legislative document is aimed, first of all, at improving the relationship between the borrower and the creditor, allowing both parties to gain certain benefits from continuing their relationship instead of being at loggerheads with each other’, the business publication believes.
Ekonomicheskiye Novosti named another several companies which in the past two years resorted to financial restructuring. These are 24 large enterprises, including several agricultural holding companies (for example, Avangard), the construction giant TMM, Ukrvtorchermet, Imperovo Foods and others. Today, after undergoing financial restructuring, these companies actively operate and continue to grow, thus providing another proof that the solutions and mechanisms set out in the Law do work.
Using WOG Group’s restructuring process at Savings Bank as an example, it is worth noting that the influence of the state (which is engaged in this process at the acceptance stage) allows to achieve a solution that would be equally satisfactory for both parties. For according to the Law, the supervisory board responsible for organizing and carrying out financial restructuring includes one representative from the National Bank, Finance Ministry, Ministry of Economic Development and Justice Ministry each, plus five representatives from associations of financial market participants, representatives of businesses and experts.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, WOG is being subjected to constant accusations from ill-wishers. Information wars are regularly waged against the company’s financial history with the intention to push the serious player out of the petroleum products market (and now also the retail market).
‘Still, WOG is building new plans to actively develop the retail area of its business and invest in the opening of new gasoline filling stations across Ukraine’, mass media conclude.
