"The full-scale war hasn't changed our faith in Ukraine's potential — at BGV, we invested 3 billion hryvnias in the last two years," says Hennadii Butkevych
BGV Group Management has continued its business in Ukraine despite Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The company has invested in new projects and businesses and supported various social and educational initiatives. Hennadii Butkevych and his company, BGV, invested nearly 3 billion hryvnias in developing Ukrainian projects in the last two years. In comparison, in 2021, the company invested 1.3 billion hryvnias in business development. This means that even after the full-scale war started and caused significant losses, BGV actively supported the Ukrainian economy and local projects. The overall amount invested in 2022 was 90% of what was invested in 2021.
What are the priorities?
The investment company's main focus is on mining projects, processing, retail (the KOLO store chain), real estate development, sports and its infrastructure, educational projects (American University Kyiv, Zhytomyr Polytechnic), charity, and support for the military. This is reported in the printed issue of New Voice #2 (383).
Over the past two years of full-scale war, the group has provided more than 1 billion hryvnias to aid people in need. Hennadii Butkevych and his BGV Group Management (including the BGV Charity Fund) directed 200 million hryvnias to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and civilians. The fund also raised 878 million hryvnias for Ukraine through direct financial assistance and donor product donations.
The group's key focus is investments in mining and processing raw materials. Even during the full-scale invasion, BGV opened one of Ukraine's most modern stone-crushing plants in the Zhytomyr region. It has an annual capacity of over 1.5 million tons, a completely new technology park, and its own rail infrastructure. The total investment in exploration and setting up the plant was about $22 million.
In 2023, one of the group's companies began industrial gas extraction at one of its licensed sites. From 2021 to 2023, BGV invested significant funding in this project: developing the plan, expanding the site, building a pilot processing plant and gas pipelines, repairing damage from shelling, and refurbishing the facility to increase gas production. As of late 2023, just one well produces 17,000 cubic meters of gas daily. Another well is set to go into operation soon, which will double gas production.
The company is also investing in graphite and beryllium, which will help Ukraine become part of the global and European strategic raw materials supply chain.
For the Balakhivske graphite deposit project, the BGV team has completed all lab and pilot tests for graphite, which is widely used in battery manufacturing. They've refined the beneficiation technology and are developing a project for a production complex. The company plans to build one of Europe's largest production facilities, with a potential capacity of 50,000 tons of high-quality graphite concentrate per year, of which 19,000 tons can be used to make spherical graphite. According to the company's experts, this amount will meet a significant portion of the EU market's needs.
For the Perzhanske beryllium deposit, which BGV is also developing, the company is conducting hydrometallurgical tests to produce the final product and confirm reserves according to international standards. In 2025, BGV plans to complete a preliminary feasibility study (PFS) to attract potential strategic investors.
One of the new vital directions the company approved during the full-scale war is energy and infrastructure. BGV Group Management is actively exploring potential projects and is open to investing in this sector in 2024. These will be energy and infrastructure projects critical for supporting and rebuilding Ukraine's economy.
