OREANDA-NEWS. April 06, 2012. Dragon Capital is pleased to note the growing interest of international investors in the Ukrainian market and the increasing number of Western funds participating in the 8th Annual Ukraine Investor Conference (March 22-23, 2012).

This year’s conference participants included 180 representatives of more than 90 leading global and regional mutual funds and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Charlemagne Capital, Danske Capital, CIM, East Capital, ING Investment Management, Prosperity, Spinnaker and others. These companies collectively manage about USD 5bn in the Ukrainian equity market and over USD 15bn in bonds issued by Ukrainian corporates. Last year’s event was attended by about 150 foreign investors.

In total, the conference was attended by nearly 250 people — representatives of Western and local investors, politicians and top management of the leading Ukrainian companies. During the one-on-one meetings between investors and listed companies and separate workshops on specific bond and equity investment opportunities the participants were able to obtain the first hand information.

Investors met with top management of nearly 30 leading Ukrainian companies, which plan to raise debt and equity financing on Western markets. Among such companies were MHP, Avangard, Agroton, Astarta, Mriya Agro Holding, Kernel, Motor Sich, DTEK, Coal Energy and other companies, which represent agriculture, oil & gas, machine building, power engineering and other strategically important sectors of the Ukrainian economy.

Tomas Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital, commented on the results of the conference: "We are pleased that despite the rather difficult situation in the Ukrainian economy and not the most favorable investment climate in the country, our conference this year was visited by so many large investors. Ukraine has recovered only a portion of the slide it suffered in the summer 2011, and looks quite attractive compared to its neighbors. However, we understand that before investors decide to invest any new money in Ukraine certain tangible events must occur. For instance, these include the ratification of the Association Agreement with the EU, the completion of negotiations on the price of Russian gas, the resumption of the cooperation program with the IMF. Any of these events could trigger a substantial increase."