On Friday, January 29, 2010, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and international investment advisory group EastOne held the 6th Ukrainian Lunch in Davos (Switzerland), entitled “Quo Vadis, Ukraine?”

This year the 6th Ukrainian Lunch was held during an active phase of the Ukrainian presidential campaign – between the first and the second rounds of the elections. The lunch featured speeches delivered by the two highest polling presidential candidates, Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko.

One week before the second round of the elections, participants of the World Economic Forum had a unique opportunity to engage in a direct dialogue with the candidates about their vision for the future of Ukraine, and key priorities in foreign and domestic policy. The discussions between the Lunch participants and presidential candidates were held in a form of a live Ukraine-Davos TV link. Following the TV link, Serhiy Tigipko, the third-place candidate in Ukraine's first round of presidential elections, addressed the audience. The fourth-place candidate in the first round of the presidential election and the leader of the “Front of Change” political party Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Carl Bildt and President of Poland (1995 – 2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski also participated in the discussions.

This year’s event welcomed over 300 people, including business leaders, politicians, public figures and journalists.

The Davos Ukrainian Lunch is the most preeminent international gathering dedicated to Ukraine, which is held annually in Davos during the World Economic Forum. The Ukrainian Lunch discussions are convened to help form the worldwide business and political elites’ opinion on the key tendencies in the development of modern Ukraine. The Victor Pinchuk Foundation and international investment advisory group EastOne have been hosting the Davos Ukrainian Lunch since 2005. This year’s event welcomed over 300 people, including business leaders, politicians, public figures and journalists.

The 6^th Davos Ukrainian Lunch is supported by partners:

Alfa-Bank

Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) is a fully fledged commercial bank, which is a member of international financial and industrial consortium Alfa Group. The bank is a leader within all segments of Ukraine’s banking services market. As rated by the National bank of Ukraine, Alfa-Bank ranks among TOP-10 major banks in terms of assets and is one of the leaders in corporate savings and deposits, while its retail savings and loan portfolio has demonstrated exuberant growth in 2011. Major enterprises, both public and privately owned, being of core value in their respective industries, are among corporate clients of Alfa-Bank (Ukraine).

Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) takes pride in its reputation of a reliable and stable financial institution, which offers the prime quality customer care and endorses innovative client-oriented approaches. As a member of Alfa Group consortium, Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) takes advantage of the banking group’s abundant financial expertise, driving the synergy of inside-out knowledge of Ukrainian lending and savings market and of internationally accepted business practices, which is an important part of its strategic know-how. Injections into the statutory capital, pursued by the Bank’s shareholders on a regular basis, are the guarantee of the Bank’s continued development ahead of the market.

Alfa-Bank endorses the projects, which aim at promotion of the national heritage and tightening of international cultural exchanges. In 2011 Alfa-Bank founded and further partnered a major social event – the international Alfa Jazz Fest, which took place in Lviv. This music event in the city of enormous cultural value gathered up over 100 world class jazz musicians. Local residents and guests, over 20 000 of which contributed to the festival, had an opportunity to watch the artists play on the three open air stages across the downtown, during three full days. The main stage featured performances of such legendary jazzmen, as Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Ihor Butman, John Scofield, Bill Evans and Jeff Lorber. In 2012, the Fest will take place in Lviv on June 1-3 and will again give the European festival summer a kick-off. Alfa Jazz Fest will obviously become one of the most noticeable events in Ukraine on the eve of EURO-2012 football championship.

Horizon Capital

Horizon Capital is a leading private equity firm managing funds with aggregate capital of over $600 million and investing in mid-cap companies in Ukraine and the region. For investors in emerging Europe Horizon Capital offers unparalleled regional knowledge, business networks, market leadership and access to a broad range of mid-cap firms with outstanding growth and profit potential. Horizon Capital is well positioned to seek a superior rate of return on investments due to its successful track record and disciplined investment approach.

Horizon Capital was established in 2006 via a spin out of investment professionals with over 10 years of successful experience managing WNISEF. Horizon Capital’s strategy is to identify high quality management teams and capitalize on specific market opportunities in the fastest growing segments of the region’s emerging markets. The investment focus is on business to business (B2B) goods and services, consumer goods and services, as well as financial institutions. Horizon Capital generally acquires stakes that enable it to control or to influence strategy and key operating decisions of portfolio companies through corporate governance. For larger investment opportunities, it may seek to syndicate the investment opportunity with other like-minded investors in the region.

Currently, Horizon Capital’s team manages three funds, 2008 $370 million Emerging Europe Growth Fund II (EEGF II), 2006 $132 million Emerging Europe Growth Fund (EEGF), and 1994 $150 million Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF).

Learn more at www.horizoncapital.com.ua