Smart Holding considers the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), made on Thursday, to cancel the committee's permission to purchase 29.8% of shares of JSC Kharkivoblenergo unreasonable and unfounded.

"The materials of the AMCU do not indicate, in particular, what information about Kharkivoblenergo from other participants in the concentration is unreliable, and how it influenced the committee's adoption of an illegal or unreasonable decision to grant Smart Holding (Cyprus) Ltd permission to acquire shares of Kharkivoblenergo. According to the current antimonopoly legislation, this is a prerequisite for canceling the AMCU's decision," the company said in a press release.

Smart Holding drew attention to the fact that the concentration did not lead to monopolization or significant restriction of competition in the relevant product markets.

The company said that the situation with the AMCU's revision of the decision was initiated by the current management of Kharkivoblenergo and related persons in order to maintain the corrupt status quo in the regional electricity supplier, since the new shareholder "has become very inconvenient for individual businessmen who profit from state-owned property." Numerous corruption schemes and outright embezzlement of funds on the eve of the planned privatization are confirmed by more than a dozen criminal proceedings, which are being investigated by NABU detectives, investigators of the State Security Bureau and the National Police of Ukraine, Smart Holding said.

"The facts and circumstances that we have found have raised the question of the need to immediately reshuffle the management bodies of the strategically important enterprise for the state, conduct a comprehensive audit, suppress corruption schemes and bring the guilty ones to responsibility provided for by law," Smart Holding said.

At the same time, the initiatives of the new shareholder were not supported by the management of the State Property Fund, although it should be primarily interested in increasing the transparency of the operation and improving the investment attractiveness of this enterprise on the eve of its privatization.

"The revision of the decision by the committee does not in any way affect the legality of our acquisition of shares in Kharkivoblenergo, as well as the exercise of our rights and obligations as a shareholder of the designated company. At the same time, respecting the decision of the AMCU, we will take all the steps provided for by law as soon as possible to resolve the situation with the acquisition of a stake of shares in Kharkivoblenergo by Smart Holding (Cyprus) Ltd," the company said.