Privat Group controls thousands of companies of virtually every industry in Ukraine, the European Union, Georgia, Ghana, Russia, the United States and other countries.
[1] The group is controlled by the billionaire businessmen Hennadiy Boholyubov, Oleksiy Martynov, and Ihor Kolomoyskyi (the latter is the richest and leading partner that is best known to the public).
[2] As a business-oligarch entity, Privat Group controls some prominent Ukrainian media, maintains close relations with politicians, and sponsors professional sports.
After the collapse of the USSR, friends returned to Dnipropetrovsk and began to import various goods - from sneakers and sportswear to telephones.
Soon they realized that it was more profitable to trade the metal, and then they started to import oil products and began to buy the premises for their storage and transportation.
With the help of vouchers, Privat entered the capital and established operational control over the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, Pokrovsky (Ordzhonikidze) and Marganets GOKs.
Korban, whose company kept the register of shareholders of the coke, through the courts canceled the transaction, which allowed his owner to collect a controlling stake.
[3] In the late 1990s, Igor Kolomoisky and Victor Pinchuk, who owned large stakes in the NZF, Pokrovsky (Ordzhonikidze) GOK and MGOK, agreed to work together in the ferroalloy market, but soon they quarreled.
Various steel companies form the core of the Privat Group, presenting a full manufacturing chain of metallurgy.
According to the media, Privat Group owns significant shares in Ukrnafta and Halychyna oil refinery, controlling their business.
Ihor Kolomoyskyi, one of the group's co-owners, brought a court suit demanding the right to purchase a controlling stake in Channel 1+1, a popular nationwide TV company.
[10] Optima owns more than 5 million square feet of real estate in the United States and is the largest holder of real estate in Downtown Cleveland[10] owning One Cleveland Center[11][12] and 55 Public Square;[11] they are previous owners of the Huntington Bank Building;[13] and the Penton Media Building.
Henadiy Korban, one of Privat Group's top managers, survived serious assassination attempts in Dnipro in March 2006, and again in September 2010.
[14] Before the Orange Revolution, Privat Group had been widely regarded as relatively uninvolved in politics, but loyal to the Leonid Kuchma regime.
Analysts agree that some of Tymoshenko's decisions as the Prime Minister of Ukraine supported Privat side in conflicts.
Some sources state that Privat Group provided significant financial support for Viktor Yuschenko during his presidential campaign and subsequent Orange Revolution.