"Creating healthy competition." Inzhur opens an exchange, what are the prospects?

Entrepreneur Andriy Zhurzhiy, who founded the investment company Inzhur, announced the creation of his own stock exchange. The new enterprise, Inzhur Ukrainian Stock Exchange LLC, with a charter capital of UAH 25 million, was registered in early November.

The Inzhur team has already engaged legal advisors to prepare the documents for obtaining a license from the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.

The goal of the exchange is to create a platform for private capital in Ukraine, where companies can list their securities and investors can invest safely.

"Currently, over 90% of trading on available exchanges involves government bonds, which in this context are irrelevant because it's simply the state substituting debt," believes Zhurzhiy.

Are Ukrainian companies ready to enter a new stock exchange? Read more in the article. LIGA.net.

How and when will the new exchange start operating?

Zurab Jvania has extensive experience in attracting investments. He is the founder of Inzhur, a company that, according to him, brings together almost 40,000 investors and manages assets worth more than $100 million.

Izhur positions itself as a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) company and offers investments in income-generating real estate securities. Specifically, commercial properties where Silpo, McDonald's, and Fora operate.

The company's press service has not yet disclosed the details of the exchange's operation, only stating that Izhur will apply solutions from international companies. Work on their analysis is ongoing, Izhur notes.

The exchange must be registered with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission within six or three months from the date of receipt of the documents. The six-month period applies if there are foreigners among the founders of the legal entity.

According to the analytical system, Izhur Ukrainian Stock Exchange LLC has one founder, the Ukrainian company Izhur. Liga360.

What are the competition and prospects?

Currently, there are only two licensed exchanges in Ukraine – PFTS and Perspectiva. However, Zhurzhiy's platform will have to compete not only with them but also with a future exchange that the state plans to create with the participation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The Ministry of Finance announced plans to create an exchange with the EBRD in the summer of 2025. A memorandum on this was signed at the recovery conference in Rome. The EBRD press service commented LIGA.net She spoke about the progress in creating the platform. It was reported that one of the key stages of work – the preparation of all necessary legal changes – will be completed by the end of the year.

"We are preparing legal changes to launch a modern integrated capital market system. It will combine trading, clearing, and settlements, meaning it will make the exchange's operations and all related transactions more coordinated," the EBRD said in response to a request.

However, the Ukrainian stock market remains at a low level of development. Therefore, the creation of a new exchange is a positive signal. This was stated by Serhiy Honcharenko, head of investment product development at BTS Broker.

"Several exchanges will create healthy competition and push for the development of domestic players in the stock market," Honcharenko believes. Andriy Velychko, head of ICU's brokerage unit, agrees. In his opinion, the idea of launching its own exchange corresponds to Inzhur's dynamics and ambitions.

"If this exchange is more technologically advanced than the existing one (and technology is precisely the problem in the domestic stock market at all levels of exchange infrastructure), then professional participants will switch to the newly created platform," Honcharenko believes.

Ukraine does not have a full-fledged centralized exchange in the classical sense, such as the NYSE or LSE, where shares of large, highly liquid companies are traded. The existing PFTS and Perspectiva are more focused on government bonds and rare corporate placements, rather than on the mass stock market, says investment expert and author of the Telegram channel "Investments in US Stocks" Yevhen Pylypets.

Inzhur could become such an alternative if it attracts large Ukrainian companies for an IPO, he believes. In addition, it will ensure transparency and investor protection, which is currently a weak point of the Ukrainian market, and will also integrate with European systems as part of European integration.

"Many Ukrainian firms (from Nova Poshta to IT giants) don't go public due to bureaucracy, war, and lack of liquidity. If Inzhur offers a simpler listing and access to investors, demand will increase," Pylypets believes.

Are potential issuers of securities interested in a new private stock exchange?

Will there be demand?

In Ukraine, up to 15 companies trade securities or their own shares on international exchanges or place bonds. LIGA.net MHP, Kernel, Novus, NovaPay, and !FEST were contacted. Only the latter two companies responded.

For two and a half years, NovaPay has been offering its own corporate bonds to Ukrainians and businesses. Series for private investors are available in the company's own mobile application, while for institutional investors they are available on the Ukrainian stock exchanges PFTS and Perspectiva. This was stated by NovaPay's CFO Ihor Prykhodko. According to him, more than 6,500 investors have already invested over UAH 2.3 billion in NovaPay's instruments.

Will NovaPay cooperate with Andriy Zhurzhiy's exchange? It's not out of the question. "If Inzhur offers quick and easy integration, convenience for investors, our securities will be represented there as well. After all, it's about accessibility, comfort, and benefits for our clients and partners," Ihor Prykhodko reflects.

The Lviv holding company !FEST (which owns establishments such as Gasova Lampa, Mazokh-cafe, Rebernia, Pyana Vyshnia, and Lviv Chocolate Workshop) is working with securities in the !FEST COFFEE project.

Currently, their corporate bonds are available on the secondary market and traded on the PFTS and Perspectiva exchanges. The holding company is considering various options for their placement, and the future Inzhur exchange is one of the potential options.

"As soon as the exchange's operating regulations are fully understood, we will return to evaluating the possibility of listing our securities on this exchange," the press service of the !FEST holding company responded.