The state wants to take away Naftogaz’s right to decide on its subsidiaries’ dividends. The draft law on the 2024 state budget (Draft Law No. 10000) proposes that entities in which 50 percent or more of shares are owned by Naftogaz must pay their 2023 dividends directly to the state budget. Naftogaz is carved out individually in this draft law, which is considered to be a poor practice.
On Sept. 25, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) partially granted the request of the attorney for the former CEO of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolyev, reducing the bail amount from Hr 229 million ($6.2 million) to Hr 107 million ($2.9 million). For a detailed analysis of this case from a corporate governance perspective, see series of columns by SOE Weekly team members Andriy Boytsun, Oleksandr Lysenko, and Dmytro Yablonovskyi: Are Kobolyev’s bonuses a threat to corporate governance reform?
On Sept. 2, Law No. 3293-IX on the corporate governance of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) went into effect after it was published in one of the official newspapers, Holos Ukrayiny. According to YouControl, the procedure to end Main Pipelines of Ukraine (MGU) as a legal entity began on Sept. 5. The shares of MGU are held by the Energy Ministry.
Law No. 3293-IX was known earlier as Draft Law No. 9311-1-d. This is most likely because it has not yet been published in one of the official gazettes: Ofitsiyny visnyk Ukrayiny, Uryadovy kuryer, Holos Ukrayiny, or Vidomosti Verkhovnoyi Rady. After being appropriately adopted and signed, laws of Ukraine must be promulgated in the official language in official printed gazettes within fifteen days, according to a relevant Presidential Decree.
The Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (LTFC IDR) and the Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (LTLC IDR) are the same across the four banks, at ‘CCC-’ and ‘CCC’, respectively. The Government Support Rating (GSR) is now also the same for all the four banks – ‘no support’ (ns) – with PrivatBank, Oschadbank, and Ukrgasbank’s GSRs downgraded from ‘ccc-’ and Ukreximbank’s GSR affirmed.