Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky is not and has never been a shareholder in IDS Group, according to Peter Nagle, a member of the board of directors of IDS Borjomi International.

Nagle said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday that Berezovsky has never been a shareholder in IDS Group and has no interest in the company.

Nagle said the family of late businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili is a majority shareholder in the group, and the other shareholders are citizens of the UK, the Netherlands, and the United States.

On November 8, IDS Group Ukraine reported a hostile takeover of the Myrhorod mineral water plant.

Mykola Kmit, the group's strategy consultant, said earlier that "there is a hostile takeover of our food holding going on, in which the story that Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky invested money in us is being used. This is though the Myrhorod plant was founded when Berezovsky was not even born, the plant in Morshyn was built from scratch, and Berezovsky has never been here. There is not a single invoice or foreign account. Moreover, there is a decision made by a London court that states clearly that Berezovsky has never been our shareholder."

Kmit said the Ukrainian State Tax Service is seizing the property and accounts of the holding under a decision made by the Moscow Basmanny Court. "The Myrhorod tax service has seized the accounts, is summoning directors for questioning, and has searched the offices of the accountant and the director of the Myrhorod mineral water plant. The Lviv Sykhivsky District Court has ruled to seize our property at Russia's request," he said.

Kmit also says that the operations of the Myrhorod mineral water plant have virtually been halted and the director of the Morshyn plant was summoned to the tax police for questioning on Saturday.

IDS Group Ukraine was created in late 2004 by merging the Myrhorod mineral water plant, the Morshin Oskar mineral water plant, ZAO Industrial and Distribution Systems, and OAO Novaya.

IDS Group Ukraine, which is part of IDS Borjomi International, produces mineral water under the trademarks Morshinskaya, Mirgorodskaya, Truskavetskaya Aqua-Eko, Stary Mirgorod, Alaska, Sorochinskaya, Aqua Nyaya, Aqua Life, etc. The group is also an exclusive importer of Georgian Borjomi mineral water to Ukraine.