Wracked by instability in Ukraine, a private energy giant owned by one of the Eastern European county’s wealthiest men is seeking a U.S. bankruptcy court’s assistance to execute a debt restructuring scheme developed overseas, the Wall Street Journal reported today. An affiliate of DTEK BV, Ukraine’s largest privately held energy company, filed papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Friday seeking chapter 15 protection. DTEK’s sole shareholder is billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who controls it through his System Capital Management investment firm, court papers say. A onetime financial backer of exiled former Ukrainian President Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, Akhmetov’s business empire has been tested by the political tumult in Ukraine since the 2014 political revolution there that toppled his longtime ally. Many of the major industrial assets owned by Akhmetov are located in eastern Ukraine near the conflict zone. The energy group, which owes roughly $2.17 billion in debt mostly denominated in U.S. dollars, euros and Russian rubles, operates a vertical production chain to serve residential, public sector and industrial end-users in Ukraine.
