Dragon Capital’s principal investments division had another year of exceptional results. Its dynamic and expanding investment portfolio companies benefited from effective ownership and strategic management advice, as well as from strong domestic economic growth and rising consumer purchasing power.

Nova Liniya
DIY retail chain Nova Liniya grew to nine stores thanks to new openings in Boryspil, Odesa, Simferopol and Lutsk. Sales continued to grow at a triple-digit pace. Future store openings, currently under development, coupled with maturity of existing stores, will allow the company to sustain this explosive growth rate and maintain its leadership status in the Ukrainian DIY market for years to come.
Nova Liniya’s growth strategy is centered on achieving market penetration in high-growth markets nationwide while taking advantage of the massive rise in consumer spending witnessed throughout the country over the last several years. Ukrainians’ desire and ability to improve their homes, or to get started on pet projects at the dacha has led them to explore all the possible ways that a modern, western-style home building product chain such as Nova Liniya has to offer. 
Nova Liniya can now boast over 100,000 m2 of selling space, more than 70,000 SKUs, over 2,000 customer checks per store each day and more than 4,000 employees and growing! It is the fastest-growing DIY retailer in the country, besting all local competitors, with locations in all major cities and many important regional centers.

Karlivka Machine-building Plant
Despite the drought that hit much of Ukraine in 2007, the domestic agriculture sector gathered steam over the year, with land purchases and industry consolidation helping bring the industry more into line with global norms. In this dynamic environment, the Karlivka Machine-building Plant – maker of grain-processing (cleaners, dryers), transport and storage equipment (silos, elevators) – has managed to more than double its revenues, thanks largely to an ongoing restructuring effort led by Dragon Capital professionals.
Karlivka continues to be the only company in its industry Ukraine offering true turnkey service to its clients, including design, on-site assembly and service or upgrades of existing grain-processing and storage-related equipment. The company is building on its client-first approach to sales, which continues to backbone existing relations with domestic and international clients, including leading Ukrainian agricultural company Nibulon, U.S.-based Cargill and Germany’s Toepfer International. Plans for 2008 call for an increase in production capacity of the core business as well as further expansion of new production activities for heavy duty shelving used by major big-box retailers, including Nova Liniya.

Cantik Development/Henryland Group
Real estate development companies Cantik Enterprises and Henryland Group pushed headlong with construction of six commercial facilities each, with a combined trading area of almost 200,000 m2. We achieved 100% lease-out rates in Lviv, Lutsk and Boryspil, completed the store in Simferopol and began sales there, broke ground in Bucha (Kyiv region) and are in various stages of preparations or development on other projects. Costs across all projects have been generally in line with projections, so the sky is the limit in 2008.