Poroshenko: Russian authorities impede the sale of Roshen branch in Lipetsk

Russian authorities impede the sale deal of the Lipetsk branch of the confectionary company Roshen, as stated by the owner of the company Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko in his interview to the television channel 1+1.

President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko who during the presidential election campaign promised multiple times to say goodbye to the profitable business, has said that the sale deal is led by the largest investment company Rothschild and according to the conditions of the deal, he does not have any influence to this process. 

Ukrainian President has also complained that due to the harsh economic situation in the country buyers and investors are not eager to purchase significant assets. As of Russian branch of Roshen located in Lipetsk that continues to be operational despite of the controversial relationships between Moscow and Kiev; according to Poroshenko, the sale deal of the part of the business is being impeded by the Russian authorities.

As it was reported earlier, on February this year Public Chamber of Lipetsk region sent an open letter to the Ukrainian leader with the proposal to hand over the branch into the ‘property of the community’ of the factory. ‘I suggest You, Mister President, to convert a factory into the community property; we would be able to assist the community in creating a public company on its basis in order to provide decent life conditions to the families and 13.5 thousands of refugees from the south-east of Ukraine who arrived to Lipetsk region after they lost their homes and the loved ones in their country,’ – as written in the letter. As of the company report on the Russian accounting standards (the RSBU), turnover of the open joint-stock company ‘Lipetsk confectionery factory ‘Roshen’ has fallen in 2014 for 6 %. Company got the net loss 407.3 million rubles, while the profit the year earlier was 178 million rubles.