November 27, 2024
Rostyslav Melnyk said this in an interview with Forbes Ukraine. According to him, today the group of companies, which includes real estate agencies, asset management companies, financial organizations and construction contractors, has about 40 enterprises, while the creation of the holding will simplify work with Ukrainian and international banks, as they will see a clear ownership structure, liquidity and assets, which in turn increases business transparency.
“Previously, everyone was working on projects under different legal entities. This reduced risks. Now this risk diversification does not work. Law enforcers attack the entire large company, not directly the legal entity to which they have claims. This structure makes it easier to work with Ukrainian and foreign banks – they eager to see the ultimate beneficiary, ownership structure, assets, and liquidity. The holding company makes it transparent,” said Melnyk.
He also said that RIEL is negotiating with foreign financial institutions, including the EBRD, to implement new programs for the Ukrainian real estate market in the future:
“We have ideas. One of them is leasing housing. To build it, you need money, which I will pay back in 20 years. So the idea is to take the money, build it, lease it out, and include the cost of this money (3-5% per annum) in the rental price. I organized the process, built the apartments, and the EBRD or IFC invested the money and received interest. There are no such programs in Ukraine. They would be appropriate because one-third of people rent housing and could become apartment owners in 20 years,” he said.
“We have asked the EBRD for $50 million. This is a large Western institution with complicated and long processes. It takes four to five years to get the money. We have passed a small due diligence and the project itself has been preliminarily approved. Now we are doing technical work. We are waiting for our turn,” Melnyk explained.
