Summary of the Second annual international conference Ukrainian Investor Meetings 2009

On April, 17th the Second annual international conference Ukrainian Investor Meetings 2009 was held successfully in Kiev at Premier Palace hotel. 119 participants from Ukraine, USA, Russia, European Union and Arabic countries attended the Conference.

For the second time the Conference, organized by DAGDA LLC, becomes a meeting place where strategic and portfolio investors meet with companies attracting investment.

The Ukrainian Investor Meetings Conference demonstrated that in spite of the global crisis Ukrainian economy is still interesting for investors from different groups. Many investors treat current crisis in Ukraine as temporary and confirm their interest to invest into Ukraine in the long-term.

The biggest exchange holding of the world, NYSE Euronext, one of the Conference partners, keeps being interested in Ukrainian issuers. Co-operation with NYSE Euronext opens for Ukrainian issuers a wide opportunity to be listed at stock platforms in New-York, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

JSC ”Ukrainian Exchange” was the National Exchange partner of the Conference. Created just recently, but rapidly developing stock exchange can very soon become a reliable platform in attracting capitals for Ukrainian issuers from the national financial market.

The interest that private equity funds have in Ukrainian companies needs especial attention. Representatives of eight foreign PE funds participated in the Conference. Representatives of Mezzanine Management Central Europe and Investment Fund for Central and Eastern Europe, who spoke at the Conference, estimated the conditions of Ukrainian economy as rather optimistic.

The biggest amount of questions was caused by the Session “Ukraine’s Place in the New World Financial Architecture: in the Aftermath of the G-20 London Summit in April”. Max Alier, Resident Representative of International Monetary Fund in Ukraine, took part in the session. During the Conference Mr. Alier said that GDP of Ukraine could decrease by 8 % in 2009. Other view on risks in banking sector and economy development during the crisis was presented in the same Session by Serhiy Yaremenko, Yuriy Prozorov and Andryy Kyyak.

Arzinger law firm had the status of General Legal Partner of the Conference. Arzinger’s partners, Maksym Cherkasenko and Inna Laska, specialists in Mergers & Acquisitions and restructuring, cleared up some legal details and possible difficulties that may arise when making M&A deals. The M&A sphere is expected to be rich in deals in Ukraine in 2009, as a result of the deep financial and economic crisis that the country survived.

The last session of the Conference was devoted to strategic investors who have been successfully working in Ukraine already for a number of years. The moderator of the session was Jorge Zukoski, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine uniting all significant foreign investors working in Ukraine. The experience of such companies as Kraft Foods and AllSeeds, who in spite of crisis continue their active business in Ukraine and attract financing, was very useful for attendants of the Conference. Both speakers from the strategic investors’ side mentioned as one of the key factors of their companies’ success the strict following of civilized international standards of business processes, accounting and relations with the government and investors.

The work of the Conference was covered by 25 journalists from 4 TV channels, 12 print and electronic mass media, 4 information agencies.

All speakers that had been announced in the program participated in the Conference:

Max Alier, Resident Representative of International Monetary Fund in Ukraine;
Yuriy Prozorov, President, Ukrainian Society of Financial Analysts;
Rostislav Lukach, Director of Department of Institutional Capital Market Development and Corporate Governance of State Agency of Ukraine on Investment and Innovation;
Serhiy Yaremenko, Advisor to the Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Ex-Deputy head of National Bank of Ukraine (NBU);
Andryy Kyyak, Ex-Head of Group of Advisors to the Governor of National Bank of Ukraine (2003-2005);
Maksym Cherkasenko, Partner of Arzinger law firm;
Inna Laska, Patner of Arzinger law firm;
Lev Holubec, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers;
Yuriy Kogut, Director General of the Consulting Company "SIDCON Ltd”;
Serhiy Savchuk, Director, P&S Asset Management;
Dmitriy Leonov, Head of the Board of Ukrainian Association of Investment Business;
Przemyslaw Glebocki, Investment Director, Mezzanine Management Central Europe;
Olexiy Parkhomchuk, Investment Officer, Investment Fund for Central and Eastern Europe;
Ihor Vlasyuk, President, Association of Private Investors of Ukraine;
Mykola Sasyuk, Head of National Agency of Ecological Investment;
Alexander Handke, Law Firm „Becker Büttner Held (BBH)”;
Aaron Goldstein, Deputy Head of International Listing, Head of Russia and CIS Business Development, NYSE Euronext;
Maria Wijngaarde, Specialist in Russia and CIS, Bloomberg (London);
Olexiy Sukhorukov, First Deputy Head of the Board of JSC “Ukrainian Stock Exchange”;
Jorge Zukoski, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine;
Gorge Logush, Managing Director, Kraft Foods Ukraine;
Ton Huls, CFO of Allseeds Group.