The Ministry of Economy hired another company to consult in the negotiations on the subsoil agreement
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine concluded a contract with the company Rothschild & Co Middle East Limited, registered in the United Arab Emirates, to provide consulting services worth 900,000 euros in negotiations regarding the subsoil agreement. Previously, a similar agreement was concluded with the American law firm Hogan Lovells. About this informs “Prozorro” system.
Consulting services are related to the intergovernmental agreement on the creation of a US-Ukrainian recovery investment fund. Rothschild & Co has been engaged as a financial advisor to evaluate a potential bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the US, which will determine the terms of operation of the Reconstruction Investment Fund (RIF), which will be managed by representatives of both countries. The agreement was signed by the parties on April 30.
At the beginning of April, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated UAH 113 million from the reserve fund of the state budget to cover expenses related to the preparation of a draft agreement on cooperation with the United States in the field of minerals. Of this amount, 59 million UAH were directed to the Ministry of Economy, and the remaining 54 million to the Ministry of Justice. As reported, the government immediately signed a contract with the American law firm Hogan Lovells to provide consulting services.
The contract with the Emirati office of Rothschild is concluded until September 30, 2025. The purchase was made without a tender due to urgency. The rationale states that according to the government’s mandate dated April 8, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Justice had to engage the relevant consultants by April 15 – that is, in one week. It would take at least 12 days to conduct open auctions in the prescribed manner, which was against the established deadlines.
The agreement was concluded with Rothschild & Co, as a company that already has experience of cooperation with the government of Ukraine in the field of public debt management and attracting external financing. The ultimate holding company of Rothschild & Co is the French company Rothschild & Co SCA.
According to data from Prozorro, in 2017 Naftogaz of Ukraine entered into an agreement with the Italian division of Rothschild S.p.A. in the amount of UAH 98 million regarding investment banking services related to the process of unbundling — separation of natural gas transportation activities.
