Ukrposhta’s desire to buy a bank is economically impractical and unhelpful for the state

The desire expressed by the Ukrposhta state-run company management to buy a bank is at least impracticable. Mikhael Zhernov, a managing partner of Millstone&Co (Poland, Ukraine) International Investment company commented. “The Ukrposhta’s desire to own a bank should have financial grounds. A minimal amount of investment funds required for such deals is around USD 20 M, and it is to buy a small bank only without further investments for development. In the current stance to spend taxpayer’s funds makes no sense”, – the investment expert noted. Mr. Zhernov added: to buy a bank and to invest its development – is a huge amount of funds and Ukrposhta, a state-run company, does not make as much and what is more why the state needs one more state-run bank. The managing partner of the investment company thinks that to implement such a ‘doing banking business’ idea Ukrposhta should consider the cooperation project with the state-owned Ukrgazbank even by entering the equity capital. “This step will capitalize the state-owned bank and give the state more benefits to sell it in the future and Ukrposhta in its turn will make its dream come true”, – Mr. Zhernov added. Millstone&Co is a private investment company that provides traditional investment-related services to its clients. The company has offices in Warsaw, Krakow, and Kyiv.