Accusations by the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine that AMIC Ukraine is controlled by russians are forcing many Ukrainian drivers to avoid the brand. For more than six months, the gas station chain has been under ESBU arrest. Meanwhile, the company has filed a lawsuit against russia to the European Court of Human Rights, demanding 300 million hryvnias in compensation for the gas stations destroyed by shelling. Lithuanian Audrius Stropus, CEO of AMIC Ukraine CFI, told Business Telegraph how the arrested network is currently operating.
Suspicions regarding opaque ownership and the use of fictitious owners in the Glusco gas station network very quickly led to confiscation in favor of the state. How does Amic Energy manage to avoid the same scenario? After all, the suspicions are similar.
I understand that assets are transferred to state management if the owners are under sanctions and support the aggressor. And since there is a war, the property is taken from the aggressor and handed over to ARMA. This logic is clear. We do not represent the aggressor country, we do not support russia, and are absolutely patriotic to Ukraine. The owners are Austrians, the management is Lithuanian-Ukrainian. Therefore, we cannot have such claims that we work for the russian federation.
Does Amic Energy or its owners have any connection or pending settlement with the Russian company Lukoil?
We currently have no relations with Lukoil. We have only history [with them], we cannot deny history. Please note that Lukoil was one of the largest suppliers of oil products to Ukraine before the war. "Naftorynok”, a magazine that monthly published the volume of oil products supplied to Ukraine from Russia: the first place in terms of volume of supplies was occupied by "Rosneft", and the second – "Lukoil". We did not buy petroleum products in the Russian Federation. And in general, the market bought and bought a lot. But even then there was no ban on it [russian petrol]. We did not buy, it because our logistics were different. Our gas stations are concentrated in the south and in the center of Ukraine, so it was inefficient to import goods through the Kharkiv region. We parted ways with the Russians a long time ago and went our separate ways long before other players in the market did.
But you won't deny that the sale of the Ukrainian Lukoil network to mysterious Austrian investment specialists, whom no one knew in the fuel market, raises questions?
In 2014, Lukoil sold its gas stations in many countries: in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Cyprus, it seems. A month ago I saw information that they are selling their Romanian and Moldovan assets. We wonder why we are getting these accusations? When Lukoil sold its gas stations in the Czech Republic to MOL, it did not cause any suspicions or doubts among the Czechs. Olerex bought the assets of Lukoil in Estonia - this also did not raise questions. Lukoil understood that the war unleashed in Ukraine by Russia in 2014 would lead to a decrease in demand for their products and sold assets. This is common practice. And this sale continues now.
The accusations are not related to the sale itself, but to fictitious shareholders and management, who may still be working for Russia.
I was not a participant of the process of selling assets in Ukraine. But at the time of sale, the asset had large debts. In 2014, Lukoil's assets in Ukraine were not profitable. Only the operating loss of the company in 2015 was about 10 million euros. At the time of the agreement, the buyers of the asset did not know where to get the money for employees’ wages and how to pay other obligations. Lukoil actually sold debts. What remained – were people, employees, and assets that did not generate profit. There were no provisioning streams, and all corporate clients left. There was nothing. Gas stations stood without a brand and without fuel for months. Therefore, it was necessary to find a company that could buy debts and hope that the asset would work. I remember how the Polish group, which now works in Orlen, came. Many assessed the high risks of acquiring the asset and did not agree to the deal. In 2016, a Lithuanian group of managers arrived. In 2017, I started managing the asset.
Since then, has money been withdrawn from "AMIC Ukraine" to the accounts of firms associated with the former owners?
All the money from the years that we worked and earned in Ukraine remained in Ukraine. Not a single penny was taken out of the country. Since the purchase of the network, Amic Energy has invested more than 35 million dollars in the economy of Ukraine. Today, a lot of funds are concentrated in stocks, because suppliers ask for a subscription. Tens of millions of dollars are now in residual oil products. We were accused of withdrawing dividends, but we provided bank statements confirming that we did not pay dividends and that the funds remained in Ukraine. We were accused of paying interest - we provided statements that the interest was not paid, but on the contrary - was forgiven and reflected in the company's income. We see attempts at baseless accusations.
Have there been changes in the structure of Amic Energy's shareholders since 2014 after coming to Ukraine? Are they still little-known investment professionals with no experience in the fuel market?
Why little-known? One of the founders of Amic Energy is the former CEO and Chairman of the Board of the OMV Group with about 35 years of experience and just over 9 years in the board position, a very well-known businessman in Austria. OMV Group is among the 500 largest public companies in the world. We submitted biographies of the founders and owners, their experience, and their professional path to ESBU. These are famous citizens of Austria. By the way, before the agreement on the purchase of assets in the Republic of Lithuania, Amic Energy underwent an additional check for connection with Russia and the threat of the agreement to the national security of Lithuania. This approval is given by the commission for assessing the compliance of the participants with the interests of national security, because since 2014, Russia has been a security threat to the Republic of Lithuania. Amic Energy received this approval. Our lawyers tried to attach this conclusion to the case in Ukraine, but the ESBU refused to accept it.
What is the current state of your conflict with the ESBU, which seized the property of "AMIC Ukraine" more than six months ago?
We tried to appeal the decision on the arrests. Unfortunately, the court did not take on the responsibility of removing the arrests, considering the horror stories that ESBU spoke about us in press releases. And everything currently remains as it was - rights and property are seized. The essence of the arrests is that the property and shares cannot be sold during the investigation, but we are not planning to sell them anyways. Therefore, this limitation is tolerable for us. Emotionally it is unpleasant, but if you are a pragmatist, then this is a certain temporary inconvenience.
If you lost the case, then do the accusations of ESBU have evidence?
There are two main components in this case. The first charge is for the failure to pay taxes (according to the ESBU, the underpayment amount is UAH 270 million — "Business Telegraph"). The second accusation is that funds were allegedly withdrawn (according to ESBU, UAH 1 billion — "Business Telegraph"). This is absolutely false. Our financial reporting has been audited by independent auditors and has positive feedback regarding record keeping and compliance with tax legislation. The tax authorities have no complaints against us. We never received any calculations regarding which taxes and for what period we allegedly did not pay. The second accusation is based on a 2017 fairy tale by a publication, Antikor. This publication published an article about the fact that the company has pro-Russian managers and Austrians connected to Russia. As in, everyone here works for the Russian Federation and the Russian company Lukoil. This story is based on complete fiction. ESBU, which has access to any information in the country, from phone calls to tracks, relies only on a fairy tale from Antikor. Our lawyers had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the case materials and there are no other testimonies or confirmations indicating our guilt according to the charges brought forward.
How do you plan to remove the arrest?
For us, it is not a priority to remove arrests. We are more concerned about the fact that the case is not being considered on the merits, and this is very bad for business. Therefore, we seek justice, we appeal to the higher authorities to consider our issue objectively. If there is no other evidence and accusations, let us work stably and develop the business, and close the case. As for the arrest, we can certainly go to court and win it, but that's not what we're after. Removing the arrest is not an end in itself. It would be such a cheap game. We want to solve this case on its merits. In our opinion, the allegations are not being investigated on the merits, and our arguments are not being added to the case. We now have a whole procedural dilemma with the ESBU, because we submit evidence on the case, and they return it to us, they do not want to take it, we have to appeal these refusals to investigative judges.
Is it true that you involved the Austrian embassy in Ukraine to help you solve this problem?
The embassy is keeping the process under control. We are frank with the embassy. Telling a lie to an ambassador is like lying in confession. So we tell him everything and he openly supports us. For the Austrian embassy, our founders and beneficiaries are well-known citizens of their country.
What will happen next with gasoline prices in Ukraine?
The price of fuel depends on three components: the Platts price, the amount of the bonuses and the cost of logistics. Platts quotes are still unchanged, the bonuses are getting cheaper. If the quotations also decrease, fuel will become cheaper. In Ukraine, the cost of fuel depends a lot on when the war will end and what the logistics will be like. If the Victory comes in the summer, there are such forecasts, then the southern way of supplying petroleum products, through the Black Sea, can be restored. This will expand the possibilities and affect the cost of delivery. Then there will be two ways - the south and the west of the country. I would like to resolve the issue with Transnistria, because it is a large part of the border zone. And one more country is immediately added as a logistics route. These options will affect the shipping cost. The more of them, the better for consumers.
Is it true that the vast majority of Lithuanian autogas in Ukraine is now of Russian origin, and the Mazheikyai Refinery only reprocesses it for Ukraine?
The Mazeikiai refinery is located in Lithuania. If you look at the political relations between Russia and Lithuania, it is hard to imagine that such a situation could take place. Lithuania is a forward-thinking country, it built a liquefied natural gas terminal back in 2014. As of 2014, the terminal's capacity was almost twice the needs of Lithuania.
Do you buy liquefied gas in Lithuania?
Our company imports gas produced by Orlen, occasionally we buy liquefied gas on the domestic market imported by other suppliers. We are responsible for all the resources that we import ourselves - the resources produced by Orlen. And from April 2023, we will start importing petroleum products produced by factories of the Austrian concern OMV.
How long does it take to significantly reduce the share of Russian oil products on the markets of Europe and Ukraine?
It has already been significantly reduced. Look, Russia produces 500 million tons of oil a year. They keep half for themselves. 200 million tons are supplied to friendly countries: Belarus, China, India, Cuba. 100 million remains. Who bought this volume before? The Netherlands, Finland, but they have already refused. Poland bought a lot, because there is a Druzhba oil pipeline, but the Russians have already closed these supplies to Poland. Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania - this is a small volume. Poland signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia and receives 14 million tons from there. A ship with 80,000 tons of non-Russian oil arrives in Lithuania every three days. Germany has not been replacing Russian products for a long time, but in a year it has already built several liquefied natural gas terminals and is going to lay a pipe to Spain to unite consumption in these countries. Russia thought that nuclear weapons would be the first to work, followed by natural gas. Like all of their tanks, this weapon has turned into a puff. Putin thinks he is the navel of the earth. Such people appear in history once every 100 years, starting with Louis XIV, who thought he was the Sun. If Putin did not have nuclear weapons, everything would be different.
How do you assess the company's share in the Ukrainian market?
Before the war, we had 7%, we were among the five largest players in Ukraine. We strive to keep this share, it satisfies us. If consumption increases as Ukrainians return home, we will also increase our market share. But we have no intention to put pressure on anyone, to redistribute the market.
Natalia Kabash
