ARMA Commission selects law firm with UAH 8.4 thousand profit to manage Morshynska producer
The manager of corporate rights of IDS Ukraine, producer of water under the brands "Morshynska", "Myrhorodska", "Aliaska" and others, was selected as the law firm "Prioritas". The contrast in scale is striking: the firm's revenue for 2025 was UAH 812 thousand, net profit only UAH 8.4 thousand, while IDS Ukraine's revenue reached UAH 7.4 billion.
The decision was made by the commission of the National Agency of Ukraine for finding, tracing and management of assets derived from corruption and other crimes (ARMA). But the transfer of the business to the new manager has not yet taken place: ahead is a review of its professional and financial capacity, agreement on the contract, and antitrust procedures required by law.
This stage becomes key, because the winner will manage not a small seized asset, but one of the largest companies in the Ukrainian bottled water market.
Prioritas offered to manage assets for 0.9% of profit
The ARMA commission determined "Law Firm Prioritas" as the winner on September 21, and the agency officially announced it on September 24.
The potential manager's remuneration will be 0.9% of the net profit of the assets.
This was the second lowest bid in the tender. The lowest — only 0.01% of net profit — was offered by asset management company (AMC) "Ukrcapital".
However, ARMA had previously rejected its proposal, considering the explanation for the abnormally low cost of services insufficient.
Next after Prioritas was a bid of 1%, proposed by "Alliance D", linked to co-owners of Varus and EVA chains Valeriy Kiptyk and Ruslan Shostak.
In total, five bidders participated in the procedure.
What is known about the winner
According to Forbes Ukraine citing YouControl and Opendatabot, the law firm Prioritas was registered in 2013.
Its founder, ultimate beneficial owner and director is attorney Zhanna Efremova. The company's main activity is legal services.
The scale of the firm's own business is incomparable to the asset it claims to manage.
In 2025, Prioritas' revenue grew from UAH 216 thousand to UAH 812 thousand. At the same time, net profit decreased from UAH 33.6 thousand to UAH 8.4 thousand.
The small size of a law firm's revenue in itself does not prove its inability to manage IDS Ukraine. However, this is precisely why the next stage of the procedure is especially important: ARMA officially stated that before transferring corporate rights it will still check the winner's professional and financial capacity.
IDS Ukraine is an asset of entirely different scale
IDS Ukraine was founded in 1996 and is one of the largest producers of bottled water in Ukraine.
The group's portfolio includes Morshynska, Myrhorodska, Aliaska, Aqua Life and other brands.
According to the company's own estimate, IDS Ukraine controls more than 40% of the Ukrainian bottled water market.
The group employs about 3000 people, and net assets are approximately UAH 4 billion, according to IDS Ukraine.
The group's consolidated revenue for 2025 reached UAH 7.4 billion compared to UAH 6.9 billion a year earlier.
Thus, the annual revenue of the business to be controlled by the new manager is more than 9,000 times greater than the revenue of Prioritas itself last year.
What exactly is being transferred to management
This is not a sale of IDS Ukraine and not a transfer of all group enterprises to state ownership.
Under arrest are the corporate rights of the group's enterprises. They were transferred to ARMA for management by court decisions within criminal proceedings.
ARMA links these assets to Russian capital and sanctioned businessman Mikhail Fridman.
The new manager's task is to gain the ability to control corporate decisions, ensure preservation of the business, jobs and value of the companies, and prevent withdrawal of funds.
That is, the future manager must actually perform ownership functions within the powers provided by the agreement with the state, but does not become the owner of IDS Ukraine.
The state expects no less than UAH 1 billion in dividends
The scale of responsibility is clearly visible from the conditions that ARMA itself states.
The future manager undertakes to ensure dividend income to the state of no less than UAH 1 billion after deducting its remuneration.
In addition, undistributed profit from previous periods is expected to be invested in government securities.
ARMA estimates its approximate size at about UAH 2.5 billion. The exact amount should be determined after an audit.
The agency also declares that the level of tax payments must remain no lower than current.
Against this background, Prioritas' own financial indicators become a particularly notable part of the story: a law firm with profit of a few thousand hryvnias potentially will have to control billion-hryvnia cash flows.
Why a small law firm became the winner
From published information, it is known that the commission found Prioritas' bid justification sufficient.
Representatives of the firm stated that they plan to reduce management costs and increase IDS Ukraine's income, in particular by expanding exports and optimizing logistics.
However, determining the winner does not yet mean that these plans have been accepted by the state without additional verification.
ARMA separately emphasizes: before the actual transfer of corporate rights, financial guarantees, performance indicators, control and reporting mechanisms, and the manager's liability must be established.
These conditions should show how a company with a small own business intends to organize management of a group of national scale.
The contract has not yet been signed
This is a fundamental detail of the whole story.
Prioritas is currently the winner of the selection procedure, but not yet the actual manager of IDS Ukraine.
The next stage includes review of the firm's professional and financial solvency, agreement on contract terms, passing antitrust and other permitting procedures.
Only after that can corporate rights be actually transferred to the manager.
If the procedure completes successfully, Prioritas will have to control a business with billion-hryvnia revenue, thousands of employees, and a significant share of the Ukrainian water market.
Therefore, the main intrigue now shifts from the tender itself to the terms of the future contract: what financial guarantees the winner will provide, what management team will be used, and how ARMA plans to monitor fulfillment of obligations worth billions of hryvnias.
Sources: ARMA, Forbes Ukraine.
