Ukraine is seeking to take control of IDS Ukraine, the producer of the country’s largest bottled water brands, amid a legal dispute involving sanctioned Russian investors and a UK-based billionaire family that owns 34% of the company.
According to The Guardian, Ukrainian authorities froze IDS Ukraine’s corporate holdings in 2022 because Russian investors own a 49% stake in the company.
Those investors include Mikhail Fridman, founder of Russia’s Alfa Group conglomerate, who is subject to Western sanctions over his ties to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has been instructed to appoint an independent manager to take control of the company’s operations. The Georgian government is among IDS Ukraine’s other minority shareholders.
ARMA head Yaroslava Maksymenko said the agency had repeatedly encountered legal and bureaucratic obstacles, partly because existing shareholders resisted surrendering control over their assets.
Separate proceedings are underway in Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court, where shareholders are challenging attempts to nationalize some or all of IDS Ukraine. Some government officials regard the bottled water producer as a strategically important asset during Russia’s war.
ARMA raises concerns but no wrongdoing established
Maksymenko said ARMA was concerned about the potential laundering or withdrawal of money from IDS Ukraine if the current management remained in place.
However, no Ukrainian authority has officially established that the company or its non-sanctioned shareholders engaged in money laundering or other criminal financial activity.
ARMA also said it was targeted by a cyberattack during one attempt to select an independent manager for the company. There is no evidence identifying those responsible and the Patarkatsishvili family is not suspected of involvement.
New World Value Fund Limited, the investment vehicle through which the family holds its stake, has alleged unlawful conduct by ARMA officials. Maksymenko dismissed those allegations as misinformation.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) is continuing to investigate the allegations concerning ARMA officials.
British shareholders threaten international litigation
The Patarkatsishvili family said it had supported Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and argued that it was being unfairly targeted despite not being under sanctions.
“An asset should not be taken away from non-sanctioned shareholders against whom there are no allegations or concerns,” a family spokesperson said.
The family said it would continue defending its stake before Ukrainian courts and authorities. If the property is ultimately taken through the ARMA process, it could bring the dispute before international courts.
The 34% stake was inherited in 2008 by Liana Patarkatsishvili, her sister Iya, and their mother Inna, after the death of billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.
Liana Patarkatsishvili is also a theater producer. Her company Sage & Jester staged the immersive production “Storehouse” in London in 2025, featuring British actors Toby Jones and Meera Syal.
IDS Ukraine rejected ARMA’s concerns, saying no competent Ukrainian authority had found evidence of money laundering, unlawful fund withdrawals, or similar financial offenses by the company.
The company also said it had continued producing and supplying drinking water without interruption since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, despite repeated missile and drone attacks.