The Privat Group, or PrivatBank Group (, romanized: Hrupa "Pryvat") is a global business group, based in Ukraine. Privat Group controls thousands of companies of virtually every industry in Ukraine, the European Union, Georgia, Ghana, Russia, the United States and other countries. Steel, oil & gas, chemical and energy are sectors of the group's prime influence and expertise. None of the group's capital is publicly traded on any stock exchange.
The business group was grouped around PrivatBank. On 18 December 2016 this bank was nationalized by the government of Ukraine, taking 100% ownership.
The group is controlled by the billionaire businessmen Hennadiy Boholyubov, Oleksiy Martynov, and Ihor Kolomoyskyi (the latter is the richest and leading partner that is best known to the public).
As a business-oligarch entity, Privat Group controls some prominent Ukrainian media, maintains close relations with politicians, and sponsors professional sports.
Key businesses of the group (including the PrivatBank itself) are based in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The group's founding owners, natives of Dnipro, made their entire careers there.
History
In 1990, the graduates of the Dnipropetrovsk universities, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Oleksiy Martynov, created the first joint business: Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky bought the office equipment in Moscow, and Martynov was engaged in its marketing in Dnipro. After the collapse of the USSR, friends returned to Dnipropetrovsk and began to import various goods - from sneakers and sportswear to telephones. At this stage, they had a fourth partner, the son of a major Soviet entrepreneur, Leonid Miloslavsky. Each of the partners owned 25% in the total business. To pay for imported goods, the partners set up the export of steel products, Kolomoisky was in charge of this. Soon they realized that it was more profitable to trade the metal, and then they started to import oil products and began to buy the premises for their storage and transportation. They also took up the ferroalloy direction: the group supplied fuel to the Pokrovsky (Ordzhonikidzevsky) GOK, receiving in return manganese ore and sending it for export; Martynov was responsible for this direction.
In 1992, Serhiy Tihipko, the former head of the Dnipropetrovsk Komsomol Party, suggested to Miloslavsky to set up a bank. Kolomoisky initially opposed this idea, but eventually agreed [2]. In March 1992, four companies — Vist LLC, Sentosa LLC, Som LLC, and Privat-Intertreyding CJSC — established Privatbank CJSC. Tigipko became chairman of the board, and Miloslavsky headed the supervisory board. Unlike state-owned banks, Privat willingly served private entrepreneurs. 1995 became the crucial year for the Privatbank Group business when the bank have joined voucher privatization.
Having accumulated 1.2 million certificates (2.3% of their total number), the bank began to purchase the shares of the metallurgical enterprises. The first company whose shares Privat received in exchange for certificates was the Dnipropetrovsk hardware plant. With the help of vouchers, Privat entered the capital and established operational control over the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, Pokrovsky (Ordzhonikidze) and Marganets GOKs.
Gennady Bogolyubov later admitted that Privat had to negotiate with the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Pavlo Lazarenko. So, in 1996, to the Lazarenko’s driver, Leonid Gadyatsky, were rewritten 16.7% of the Privat key company - Sentosa Ltd, 14% of the Solm company, which owned the third part of the Privatbank, and at minimum 1% of the Privat intertrading".
In 1997, Lazarenko, who had already become the prime minister, was dismissed, and Miloslavsky died of a heart attack while on holiday in Austria. The share of Miloslavsky was inherited by his daughter Marianna, who was just finishing the school.
In 1999–2003, Privat's structure bought about 40% of Ukrnafta shares on the open market, the controlling stake remained with the government. Thanks to Kolomoisky’s acquaintance with the brothers Hryhoriy and Ihor Surkis and Viktor Medvedchuk, the company’s chairman was dismissed and replaced by Kolomoisky’s appointee.
In 2000, with the help of Hennadiy Korban, Privat was able to establish control over the Kalinin coke-chemical plant, the owner of which did not cooperate with the group. Korban, whose company kept the register of shareholders of the coke, through the courts canceled the transaction, which allowed his owner to collect a controlling stake.