The commission for selecting a manager for complex assets of the National Agency for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets (ARMA) has selected Kyiv-based Legal Bureau Prioritas LLC, owned by Zhanna Yefremova, as the winner of the tender to manage the corporate rights of the IDS Ukraine group, according to minutes of the commission meeting on Sept 23 posted on the ARMA website on Thursday.
The decision followed the commission's rejection on Sept 18 of the bid from Asset Management Company Ukrkapital LLC, which had cut its auction bid to the minimum 0.01%. According to the minutes, the bid was deemed legally and economically unjustified because the participant's combined costs for the auction platform (UAH 5 million) and guarantees were dozens of times higher than the expected annual remuneration of about UAH 110,000, while the financial statements of the company's key fund showed losses.
According to the minutes of the commission meeting dated Sept 21, 2026, Legal Bureau Prioritas offered a manager's remuneration of 0.9%. All eight commission members unanimously found the justification for the abnormally low bid adequate and approved the auction results. Representatives of the winning company said they planned to increase profits and state budget revenues by analyzing markets, expanding exports, optimizing logistics and eliminating duplicated functions.
The tender covered corporate rights in several companies of the group. These included 2,045,145 shares of Myrhorod Mineral Water Plant PrJSC, with a total nominal value of UAH 21.47 million; a 100% stake in the authorized capital of Potuzhnist LLC from Morshyn Mineral Water Plant Oscar PrJSC (UAH 16.18 million); as well as stakes in IDS Aqua Service LLC (UAH 990,000), Industrial and Distribution Systems PrJSC (UAH 4.5 million), Cyprus-based International Distribution Systems Limited (UAH 8.8 million), IVA PE and Nova.com SE (UAH 1.5 million).
For its part, the IDS Ukraine group said in a statement that it had taken note of the tender commission's decision and expected compliance with legal requirements. Management stressed the need to conduct and approve an independent valuation of the seized assets before signing the management agreement as the only instrument to prevent the business from being devalued.
The group also stressed the importance of insuring the manager's liability and expected the existing operating model to be maintained to protect its workforce of more than 3,000 employees, maintain tax payments and continue humanitarian programs. The group's companies are currently operating normally.
As reported, in autumn 2022, ARMA took over management, pursuant to a court ruling, of the corporate rights, industrial designs and trademarks of companies in the IDS Ukraine group. In April 2023, Carpathian Mineral Waters was selected to manage the assets, but the transfer of the assets under management never took place. In March 2025, ARMA announced termination of the contract as one that had not been implemented.
In November 2025, ARMA announced a tender to find a company to provide temporary management of IDS Ukraine's assets, including production facilities and logistics, and ensure business continuity.
The tender terms were criticized by a number of companies prepared to participate in the competition to manage IDS Ukraine's assets. They filed a complaint with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) and asked it to remove discriminatory requirements from the tender documents that, they said, artificially restricted competition and effectively excluded most Ukrainian companies from participating in the management of the group's assets.
