Metinvest is among the top 3 largest wartime investors

Metinvest Group has been ranked second in the top 50 largest Ukrainian investors in more than 2.5 years of wartime by NV.ua. This is stated in the company’s statement.

Despite the difficult current circumstances, the top three companies on the list are exclusively Ukrainian: DTEK took first place and MHP took third.

According to the publication, Metinvest has spent more than UAH 28.1 billion on CAPEX, including joint ventures, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

As noted, in 2022-2023, the company invested in the launch of new longwalls for coking coal production at Pokrovske Coal Group, repairs of coke oven batteries to maintain coke production at Kametstal, blast furnaces at Zaporizhstal and Kametstal, and overhaul of the main technological equipment – rolling mills at Zaporizhzhia Steel.

According to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Group, the company’s most important investment over the past 2.5 years has been its contribution to Ukraine’s victory in the war.

‘The steel industry, and Metinvest along with it, has been and remains the backbone of Ukraine’s economy. We produce steel to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure, steel products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and export Ukrainian products around the world, which allows us to provide foreign exchange earnings to the country and pay significant taxes. All this requires continuous investment in our assets, which has not stopped for a single day since the start of the full-scale war,’ he commented.

The top 50 largest investor companies, according to NV, have invested more than UAH 224 billion in Ukraine’s economy over 2.5 years. The funds were mainly used to rebuild assets or develop long-planned projects.

To compile the ranking of the largest private investors, the publication sent inquiries about capital investments in Ukrainian assets and the amount of transactions for the purchase of assets in the country (if any) over the past 2.5 years to more than 160 large companies operating in the national market. The top 50 were ranked by the amount of investment in hryvnia. Data from state-owned companies and private businesses whose owners are facing charges in Ukraine were not taken into account.

According to GMK Center’s annual study, Contribution of Steel Industry to Ukraine’s Economy 2023, last year the steel sector contributed 5.7% to the country’s GDP, including supply chains. Its share in total exports in 2023 was 14.6%.

The largest companies in the iron and steel sector continued to invest in the period, investing $600 million, and paid $1 billion in taxes, accounting for 3.0% of total tax revenues. Last year, wages in the steel industry were 37% higher than the average in Ukraine.