Kyivstar almost bought stake in Comfy - media
The telecommunications company Kyivstar is close to signing a deal to buy about 50% of the shares of the largest electronics and home appliances retailer Comfy, but is going to leave control of the company to its current beneficiary, Stanislav Ronis. At the same time, the company has recently announced an increase in the cost of a number of its tariffs due to rising costs of resources.
Forbes Ukraine writes about this.
A top manager of Kyivstar unofficially denied to Forbes Ukraine the fact of the deal with Comfy after the article was published in Forbes Ukraine.
Forbes Ukraine indicated that the deal was "in the final stages and one of the investment bankers said that the participants want to announce it next week."
Two investment market sources and a former executive of a large marketplace told Forbes Ukraine that the deal could have gone through at a valuation of more than USD 300 million for Comfy.
The investment market source said that the sale of the entire company is out of the question. "They're buying the management's share, about 10%, possibly, of a co-owner Svitlana Hutsul, who owns about 25%, and some share of Ronis," he says.
He clarifies that Kyivstar's share will be almost 50% and Ronis will remain the controlling shareholder of the company.
The press service of Comfy clarified to Forbes Ukraine that the key beneficial owners maintain a long-term focus on business development and do not consider the sale of the company or new partnerships that will lead to the loss of control over the company.
The publication notes that negotiations between the companies began in the summer of 2025.
On December 18, 2025, Kyivstar raised the cost of its tariffs, explaining this by the increase in the cost of key resources, in particular, electricity for enterprises, which rose by 60% in the evening peak hours, as well as a significant increase in the need for fuel for generators.
In the third quarter of 2025, the company generated EBITDA of UAH 7.1 billion, up 21.5% compared to the third quarter of 2024, and in dollars, the growth was 20.4% to USD 171 million.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in March 2025, Kyivstar bought 97% of one of the largest online car ordering services in Ukraine, Uklon, for USD 155.2 million.
The main shareholder of Kyivstar Group with 89.6% is the telecommunications holding VEON, which was its 100% owner before Kyivstar was listed on the stock exchange.
The largest shareholder of VEON is Letterone Investment Holdings, which owns 45.5% of the company's shares.
Letterone was founded by Alfa Group beneficiaries Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, who in 2022, after russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, were subject to personal sanctions by the US, EU and other countries and resigned from the Letterone Board of Directors.
According to YouControl, the owner of Comfy Trade LLC is Comfy Holdings Limited (100%, Cyprus), the ultimate beneficiaries are Stanislav Ronis and Svitlana Hutsul.