The management of the ATB corporation stated that it would file lawsuits in Ukrainian and international courts to protect honor, dignity and business reputation for the initiative of the Verkhovna Rada deputies to nationalize the network’s property. This message was distributed by the company’s press service.
The ATB company reports that it will initiate an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to deprive the authors of the bill of parliamentary immunity. The ATB press service also stated that such legislative initiatives have signs of political PR and populism.
Let us recall that on April 22, 2015, deputies of the ruling coalition submitted a bill for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada on the nationalization of the ATB chain of stores. People’s deputies accused the ATB leadership of supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The management of the ATB network categorically denies this information. As stated by the store owners, neither the management of the corporation nor the owners have ever collaborated with any groups in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Also, store owners stated that ATB Corporation is one of the affected parties in the situation in the East of Ukraine. According to company estimates, their losses during the conflict in Donbass are estimated at UAH 1 billion.
The bill on the nationalization of ATB was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by the leader of the Radical Party Oleg Lyashko, members of the Samopomich, Popular Front, Batkivshchyna and BPP factions.
The ATB company is owned in equal shares by three Dnepropetrovsk businessmen Gennady Butkevich, Evgeny Ermakov and Viktor Karachun. In 2013, according to Forbes magazine, they topped the ranking of the richest residents of Dnepropetrovsk.
SKELET-info
