Forbes named Metinvest the No. 1 company in Ukraine

Despite asset losses on the front lines and a decline in production, the group maintains its leadership and increases investment

Metinvest Group topped the updated ranking of Ukraine’s 202 largest private companies, which, according to Forbes Ukraine, form the backbone of the national economy. This is stated in the company’s press release.

The list includes only businesses with revenues of UAH 5.5 billion in 2024, which is 17% higher than the entry threshold in 2023. The ranking does not include state-owned enterprises, intermediaries of natural monopolies, companies with fewer than 50 employees, and those that ceased operations as of the end of October.

According to the publication’s estimates, Metinvest’s revenue in 2024 amounted to UAH 323.2 billion, allowing the company to remain the largest private business in the country. DTEK, ATB, Kernel, and Fozzy Group also made it into the top 5.

Despite its leadership, the company is operating in extremely difficult wartime conditions. Metinvest has already lost Azovstal and Ilyich Steel in occupied Mariupol, and in 2025, it was forced to suspend operations at the Pokrovskoye mine and the Svyato-Varvarinskaya factory due to their proximity to the front line. This means a loss of 3.1 million tons of its own coking concentrate production and significant pressure on the entire metallurgical industry of Ukraine.

About 6,000 employees of the Pokrovsk asset are being redirected to other enterprises — Zaporizhstal, Kametstal, and the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Plant. At the same time, due to the loss of production, the company again reported losses. In January-June 2025, the figure reached $58 million, compared to last year’s profit of $179 million.

After cutting investments in 2024, Metinvest plans to increase its investments in Ukrainian assets to about $300 million in 2025. Key projects include the modernization of blast furnace No. 9 at Kametstal, the development of the Northern Iron Ore Plant, and energy solutions. Meanwhile, the group is reducing its presence abroad, preparing to sell United Coal Company in the US.

Metinvest was the leader in Forbes Ukraine’s ranking of the 202 largest businesses in Ukraine in 2024.

From January to September this year, the company paid UAH 13.8 billion in taxes and fees to budgets of all levels in Ukraine. The three largest deductions were subsoil use fees, unified social tax, and personal income tax.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Metinvest has allocated more than UAH 9.7 billion to support the state and Ukrainians, of which more than UAH 5.2 billion has been allocated to the army as part of the Steel Front military initiative.