Ukrainian oligarch Firtash sells assets in occupied Crimea to Russian company
PrJSC Ukrainian Chemical Products, owned by Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, has sold all its assets in Crimea, the oligarch’s holding company Group DF wrote on Facebook on Dec. 30.
Ukrainian Chemical Products, previously known as Crimean Titan, is a subsidiary of Group DF. It was sold to Russian Titan LLC, Group DF wrote.
“The terms of the agreement provide that all movable and immovable property of the former Crimean Titan plant becomes the property of the buyer,” the company said.
“The transaction has been completed, the relevant changes in the registers have been made by the state registration bodies of Ukraine.”
This asset has lost its economic attractiveness due to political circumstances, Group DF said.
“Having no control over this asset since 2016, the Group DF looking for an opportunity to sell it,” the report reads.
Ukrainian Chemical Products is a major titanium dioxide manufacturer located in the town of Armiansk in Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
In 2014, PrJSC Crimean Titan was re-registered from Armiansk to the capital city of Kyiv.
Later, Group DF renamed it Ukrainian Chemical Products, and Ostchem Germany GmbH, registered in Hamburg, became its owner.
Group DF Corporate Communications director Oleh Arestarkhov in a comment to news agency Interfax-Ukraine said the group had not controlled Crimean Titan since 2016.
According to him, this is a deal between two private companies so there are no obligations to disclose its value.
“At the same time, it is clear that any assets in Crimea are subject to sanctions and cannot sell their products abroad due to the current status of the peninsula,” Arestarkhov said.
“This has critically reduced the asset value,” he said, adding that under current conditions the asset is not of any interest to international buyers.
Arestarkhov emphasized the buyer had nothing to do with Group DF.
“We repeat once again: Paradoxical as it may sound, we are glad that we have managed to sell this asset,” he said.
According to the group’s representative, the deal is not related to personal sanctions imposed by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council against Firtash, or to Valky Ilmenite LLC, a part of Group DF’s titanium business.
He stressed that the sale of the Crimean assets had begun long before the introduction of sanctions.
Arestarkhov added the relevant sanctions had been appealed to the Administrative Cassation Court. Also, Group DF categorically rejects accusations of allegedly selling Valky Ilmenite LLC to the Russian military-industrial complex.
According to the SPARK-Interfax analytical system, Russian Titan LLC (Petrozavodsk, Karelia) was founded in July 2021 with an authorized capital of RUB 10,000.
Its core business is registered as being the output and beneficiation of titanium-magnesium raw materials.
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