Marchenko Partners has advised Western NIS Enterprise Fund on its provision of unspecified loans to Smachni Spravy and Pizza Veterano Kyiv.
The Western NIS Enterprise Fund is a USD 150 million regional fund that invests in small and medium-sized companies in Ukraine and Moldova. Since its inception, WNISEF’s cumulative investments, made to 130 companies employing around 26,000 people, total over USD 186 million.
Smachni Spravy is a manufacturer of meat products that employs persons displaced from Eastern Ukraine by military actions. The company is based in Brovary, in the Kyiv Region of Ukraine.
Pizza Veterano is a social entrepreneurship venture that helps ex-combatants of the war in eastern Ukraine adjust to normal life. According to Marchenko Partners, “ten percent of Pizza Veterano’s profit goes toward supporting Anti-Terrorist Operation combatants and their families.”
Including this transaction, Marchenko Partners has so far assisted the fund with the provision of 25 loans as a part of its Affordable Loans for Social Enterprises in Eastern Ukraine project. One of the most recent transactions was WNISF’s loan to the Printing House in Kramatorsk, Ukraine (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on March 30, 2021). The loan program was initiated in 2016 by WNISEF in partnership with Oschadbank and Kredobank. According to the firm, “it allows social enterprises (businesses that implement social or environmental programs or resolve certain social issues) to get access to hryvnia-denominated low-interest loans.”
Marchenko Partners’ team included Partner Roman Shulyar, Senior Associate Bogdan Burlaka, and Associate Oleksandr Poznyakov.