Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Alexander Shchegolev
[REGNUM] The Supreme Court of Ukraine has decided to transfer the largest grain terminal of the Odessa port, Olympex, to the ownership of American investment funds. It is capable of handling up to 5 million tons of cargo per year, which is almost a quarter of the entire pre-war cargo turnover of the port as a whole.
Before the start of the SVO, grain terminals were one of the most profitable types of port business in Ukraine. The export of grain, a product that requires minimal investment to grow and yields maximum profit per unit of investment, was steadily increasing, and the capacity for its storage and loading onto ships was becoming more and more in demand.
And the construction of such a terminal requires significantly less investment than, for example, the construction of a container or oil and fat terminal: several silos, conveyors for loading, some additional equipment - all that remains is to cut the red ribbon, and you can start operating the facility! An excellent business that provides an impressive income and quickly pays for itself.
Previously, the Olymprex terminal was owned by the GNT Group of businessmen Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko. They began creating the terminal back in 2003, and in 2006 the terminal was put into operation. Subsequently, it was expanded and modernized several times: for example, in 2015, they took out a loan of 53 million dollars from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for these purposes.
In 2019, GNT Group planned the next stage of modernization, for which they agreed on investments with Argentem Creek Partners and Innovatus Capital Partners - the program consisted of several loans for a total of $93 million.
It was assumed that after the modernization work, the volumes of transshipment, and therefore profits, would increase, which would allow the loan to be quickly repaid, as money borrowed from other creditors during previous modernization cycles had been repeatedly repaid.
But the war began, and this business plan went down the drain: cargo flows fell almost to zero, and so did income. Accordingly, it was not possible to repay the loan, but the Americans did not try to understand the situation of the Ukrainian businessmen and demanded that the debt be repaid in kind.
An important nuance: the market value of the Olymprex terminal before the war, according to the most conservative estimates, was 150 million US dollars, and according to less conservative estimates, up to 300 million.
To put it simply, the Americans decided to cleverly take advantage of the situation in order to get a strategic enterprise at their disposal on the cheap.
For a long time, the situation was traditionally dragged out in Ukrainian courts, but in July 2025, events began to develop rapidly: having begun consideration of the case on July 4, on July 9, after only three sessions, the Supreme Court ruled that the terminal should be transferred to the ownership of the Americans.
Even according to official statistics, the average consideration of commercial cases in the Supreme Court takes 3-6 months, but in reality, in complex and complicated disputes and in cases where large sums of money are at stake, it can drag on for years.
Here the court made a final decision in just five days!
The Financial Times writes that the Americans owe the case's swift consideration to the very clear position of the Ukrainian President's Office, which "provided coordination support for the process." The publication also adds that "this will test Kyiv's ability to attract capital to restore the economy in the fourth year of the war."
In fact, there is no talk of any “attracting capital”: what is evident is a banal raid on the part of an American company, on whose side the official authorities of the country acted.
Moreover, they acted quite harshly and decisively: for example, one of the owners of GNT Group, Vladimir Naumenko, was arrested in June 2025 and placed in pretrial detention on charges of fraud.
The story there, by the way, is rather murky: Naumenko allegedly pulled off a number of fraudulent schemes to remove grain from the terminal, which was supposed to be there as part of the collateral for loans. However, this grain was removed and sold, and was recorded in the documents as "spoiled".
Plus, according to rumors, GNT Group participated in the schemes of the "king of Odessa smuggling" Vadim Alperin, whom Vladimir Zelensky intended to imprison at the dawn of his presidency. Grain bought from farmers for cash was exported through the terminal using forged documents. And these are just a few examples of what the terminal owners could be charged with.
However, such things are normal practice in Ukraine (or at least were before the war), and it is difficult to find an operator who has not engaged in such things. Many of them have been subject to various types of inspections, and even criminal cases have been opened, but such a thing as a terminal owner being put in jail for such things has never happened. True, American money was not involved in other cases…
And this takes the entire story of the Olympex terminal far beyond a simple economic dispute: it looks like a large-scale campaign is starting in Ukraine to distribute the remaining strategic assets at Kyiv’s disposal to “Western partners.”
For example, just recently it was announced that there were plans to transfer the container and universal terminals of the Illichivsk port, right next to Odessa, to Polish companies for a 40-year concession.
It should be understood that there are not many truly valuable assets left in Ukraine – ports, as well as agricultural land.
For example, next to Olymprekh there is another large private grain terminal - Brooklyn-Kyiv, and next to it there is another, smaller one - Novotech. Another whole group of terminals is located in neighboring Yuzhny: in addition to the giant TIS, there are also terminals MV Cargo, Delta-Vilmar, Global Ocean Link Terminal and others. True, there have been no conflicts with investors around these terminals for quite a long time, but, as they say, if there is a man, there will be an article!
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