The parent company of the mobile operator Kyivstar, VEON, is preparing for an indirect listing of the company’s shares on the American stock exchange NASDAQ in 2025. At the same time, the group’s management is considering the possibility of listing shares on the Ukrainian market; however, the implementation of these plans is currently complicated by the existing regulatory policy.
This is reported by Business • Media
Obstacles to IPO in Ukraine
Ogi Fabella, co-founder of VEON, emphasized his desire to make Kyivstar a true public IPO and provide Ukrainians with direct access to investments in the company. According to him, VEON is facing certain regulatory hurdles, but the company is ready to cooperate with the Ukrainian government and the financial sector to achieve this goal.
“My dream is to make Kyivstar a public IPO. We have regulatory challenges on the path to realizing this dream, but we are fully prepared to work with the government of Ukraine and the financial sector to make it happen. We would like investment opportunities to be open to Ukrainians as well,” he stated.
Currency Restrictions and Lack of IPO Platform
Alexander Komarov, CEO of Kyivstar, confirmed that Fabella indeed aimed to organize a simultaneous listing of the company’s shares on exchanges in the USA and Ukraine. However, he noted that there is practically no market or platform for conducting IPOs in Ukraine, which is why the company is exploring alternative mechanisms that would allow shares listed on NASDAQ to be accessible to Ukrainian investors.
Before the full-scale war, this was possible thanks to a special procedure approved by the National Securities Commission. However, currently, due to martial law and the introduced currency restrictions, such an option is impossible to implement, as the securities are denominated in foreign currency.