Subject to the declared principles of integrity, transparency and openness, acting in the interests of the Trustees of one of the largest investment groups of Ukraine (the Business) and its employees, aiming to preserve this Business and its infrastructure, jobs, and a permanent source of revenue for the country’s budget, taking into account the unprecedented pressure from the entire law enforcement system on the enterprises of our Business, we propose for your consideration an offer for finding a way out of the current tangled situation, and a vision of our common future.
To begin with, all of us should objectively agree that the facts of the charges against the Business will be thoroughly verified and confirmed by the relevant conclusions of the courts.
In the meantime, the Business should continue to operate, invest in Ukraine, pay taxes to the budget, and pay salaries, help the army and civilians, as it has been doing all this time till now.
The above cannot have any other meaning and perception, contrary to the positive effect of the Business’s operations in the interests of Ukraine and its security.
For this, the authorities only need to stop the pressure on the bodies of the Ministry of Justice meant to remove the new shareholders from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations contrary to the law. They also need to unblock the operational activities of the Business, which will allow the return of licenses, the release of gas in storage facilities, and etc. It should be noted that the assets might remain seized in the meantime until the end of all court processes and proceedings to establish the objective truth. The key point is that the Business should work for the economy, taxes should replenish the budget, employees should be paid salaries, and aid to the army and civilian population should not stop.
If, despite all the objective facts confirming the operation of our Business solely in the interests of the country, its independence and sustainability, there is an inexorable call from the incumbent authorities whereby Smart-Holding’s investment in Ukraine and its operation as an investment group are considered undesirable, then we offer you our gradual withdrawal from all the Businesses.
To that end, we are ready to help you find and engage independent foreign and/or domestic strategic investors who would continue to invest in Ukraine and who would for sure be interested in considering post-war Ukraine for investment. Otherwise, the government and the country as a whole can get investors who would only use the opportunity to be "temporary administrators" for their own pecuniary interests during the war, and would then sell the Business’s framework structure or just a license or fixed assets to other investors at an overprice.
We firmly believe that even the implementation of the authorities’ questionable solution to transfer the Business and its property through the ARMA mechanism or confiscate it in favour of "interested" persons, can be done in a civilized manner. Therefore we propose to come to an agreement on such a process and its support.
The collapse of the Business is the worst thing that can happen in the country, especially during the war. The key matter for us, as for any manager, owner, and administrator, is our people, ordinary citizens of Ukraine. We all need to protect people as much as possible, make a transition that would be painless for them, and give them hope for the future.
Since we act honestly, transparently and openly, we kindly inform you that in any case, we will continue the contestation in Ukrainian and international courts, because we know and are confident that all the charges from law enforcement agencies are groundless and contrary to law. We are the ones who created this Business, and recruited the teams, so it grieves us to see what is happening.
If our principles, values and vision regarding the future of the Business and investment in Ukraine concur with yours, then we are ready for an open dialogue with the authorities and the settlement of this crisis situation in a civilized way.