ICU PLEDGES $1 MILLION TO KYIV SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

ICU announced a US$1 million donation to Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) to fund the continual development of the University. The donation builds on the company’s long-standing commitment to promoting economic and financial education.

Makar Paseniuk, co-founder of ICU Group and co-chairman of the Board of Directors of KSE commented: “In 2016, we were one of the first Ukrainian businesses to believe in KSE’s mission to become an intellectual foundation for a strong and innovative economy of Ukraine and the real desire of management to implement it. It is crucial for us to support the creation of such a foundation. We have witnessed clear results of the efforts of the university since we began our partnership - the number of students has grown 10 times, and the list of curricula covers almost all aspects of modern economic thought. We are delighted to continue our support for the School, highly appreciating its potential.”

Konstantin Stetsenko, co-founder of ICU Group said: “Kyiv School of Economics was recently named the best university for a business degree in Ukraine according to Forbes and we couldn’t agree more with the ranking. We are glad to continue our support and further cement our partnership with KSE, which, in our opinion, will soon become one of the leading business universities in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Tymofiy Mylovanov, President of the Kyiv School of Economics, said: “The cooperation between KSE and ICU has a successful history. ICU was one of the first strategic partners of the Kyiv School of Economics and their support has been instrumental to our success so far. Together we created and successfully implemented key projects aimed at improving the quality of economic and business discourse in Ukraine including the flagship Ukrainian Financial Forums (UFF) 2018/2019 and Ukraine Economy Week. ICU was also one of the founders and sponsors of the Center for Economic Journalism at KSE which aims to advance the level of economic understanding for existing journalists and promote responsible financial journalism. Now the School is launching two new modern English-language bachelor's programs: "Economics and Big-Data", as well as "IT and Business Analysis”. This was made possible, among other things, thanks to the partnership and financial support of the ICU. I am sure that such a significant investment to the development of education in Ukraine will set a precedent for other Ukrainian businesses."

About ICU

ICU is an independent asset management and investment advisory firm specialising in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Founded in 2006 by senior investment professionals from ING, ICU is Ukraine's leading asset manager with over $500m in assets under management. Our current strategy includes significant allocations to venture capital and distressed debt.

Our veteran investment team has experience in private equity & venture capital, high yield corporate debt, distressed debt, restructurings and other special situations across a number of emerging markets. Investment decisions are supported by robust macroeconomic and sectoral analyses from our in-house team of research economists.

We aim to provide our clients with superior risk-adjusted returns across a number of asset classes. The firm is expanding its reach into key European markets via a combination of organic growth and acquisition and continues to expand the range its investment offerings.

Makar Paseniuk and Konstantin Stetsenko are founding partners of ICU.