Ukraine was looking for investors in Davos: what was offered and what was found
24 January 09:42
While Ukraine’s president was in Davos discussing the need for and size of an international peacekeeping force to enforce any ceasefire and the US president called for an end to the three-year war, Ukrainian officials were making efforts to attract private investors to help rebuild the country. This was reported by Reuters, according to
According to the agency, First Deputy Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev presented $500 billion worth of recovery and reconstruction projects that could bring both strategic and financial dividends to Western investors, as Kyiv is ready to step up privatization plans to attract foreign capital.
“These investments will be made by the private sector,” Oleksiy Sobolev explained on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. He mentioned successful examples of small-scale privatization. Now, the scale is different.
“We are considering the possibility of larger privatization. Now is the right time for larger companies,” the official emphasized.
What can Kyiv offer to large investors?
This year, Ukraine brought specific projects to the Davos Economic Forum. This was stated by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko in an interview with Forbes Ukraine the day before.
“We are ready to privatize Sense Bank and consider selling a share of Ukrnafta, which is in dire need of modernization,” the official said. As for Ukrnafta, the discussion has only just begun, she clarified.

According to Yulia Svyrydenko, the government is considering a concession of the Chornomorsk port as part of a public-private partnership.
“We see interest from both the domestic market and international investors,” she said.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, “where the private sector can effectively restore and modernize unprofitable companies, the market should work.”
Cooperation agreements were also signed in Davos
One of the landmarks for Ukraine was the deal that the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas (VWS.CO) signed with DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company. The deal is worth $470 million and envisages the expansion of the Tiligul wind farm near the Black Sea coast. DTEK will purchase 64 wind turbines from the Danish manufacturer. According to the company, €370 million of the investment will be financed by bank loans secured by the Danish Export Investment Fund, and the rest will be financed by DTEK.
Commenting on the deal, Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen said it was difficult to find financing for the project in a place that many lenders consider a war zone. As a result, the process was delayed and negotiations, which usually take weeks, stretched over “several quarters.” In this case, Henrik Andersen said, public funding was crucial to start such a gigantic reconstruction. “The reconstruction in Ukraine started even before the peace agreement,” he emphasized.
What is known about the development of Tiligul wind farm
This project will be the largest private sector investment in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion and the largest private investment in the country’s energy sector in history.

The number of turbines at the Tiligul wind farm will increase from 19 to 83, and the capacity will quadruple from 114 to 500 MW. “The total investment in construction will amount to 650 million euros,” the company said in a statement.
The company also said that at full capacity, Tiligul wind farm will produce 1.7 TWh of electricity per year, which is enough to supply 900,000 Ukrainian homes with electricity, equivalent to the energy needed to charge every smartphone in the EU for a year.
DTEK intends to complete the construction of the expanded wind farm by the end of 2026.