The story
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.
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In the late 1990s, Igor Kolomoisky and Victor Pinchuk, who owned large stakes in the NZF, Pokrovsky (Ordzhonikidze) GOK and MGOK, agreed to work together in the ferroalloy market, but soon they quarreled. In 2003, Pinchuk acquired a controlling stake in the NFP during the auction, to which no one else was allowed. After the change of power, in 2006, Pinchuk ceded control over the NFP and received in return 25% in the Privat ferroalloy business.
At the end of 2007, Kolomoisky sold to Evraz the controlling stakes of the six metallurgical enterprises. Privat received $1 billion and 9.72% of Evraz shares. However, two years later, Bogolyubov was removed from the board of directors of Evraz.
As of 2024, the Group has more than 19 million active customers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Privat Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3