Despite the fact that the United Kingdom is just the fifth largest FDI (foreign direct investment) source into the Ukraine, the country is getting more and more capital inflow channeled through London, Europe’s financial capital.

For the past few years, even though the global financial market has slowed down due to the financial crunch, Ukrainian companies have increased their efforts to raise money and to be listed on the international stock market. It is forecast that by term end, Ukraine will raise exemplary capital, and more and more domestic companies will list themselves on the London Stock Exchange through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

According to Dragon Capital, an investment bank at Kyiv, Ukraine’s companies have raised more than $1.6 billion through IPOs, in the year 2007 and still more is expected in the years to come. Since Ukraine’s independence the UK has invested $2 billion via FDI; Germany and Cyprus together have poured nearly $7 billion into the pot. Along with this, $2.5 billion has been invested by Austria and the Netherlands.

Even though these five countries contribute to more than 50% of FDI in Ukraine, money inflow through London has already brought tremendous growth to Ukrainian companies. More and more companies from Ukraine want to raise their game to the highest standards of the global financial market and get the maximum value of their shares; that is of course why they want to be listed at the London exchange. The most important factor that these companies have to implement is to show much more transparency along with good corporate governance, which is demanded by the London market.