On September 9, 2016 Mykhailo Merkulov, CEO Arricano, participated in the press- conference, where the signing of the Anti-Corruption Memorandum in the fields of real estate and construction took place. The members of the Ukrainian Real Estate Club, the Executive Director of Transparency International Ukraine and Deputy Business-Ombudsman presented the Memorandum, drew attention to the significance of fighting against corruption and called the Ukrainian business to support the governmental anti-corruption program with actions. All real estate market players were proposed to join the signing of the Memorandum and to declare the fight against corruption.

Vladyslav Kysil, Co-chairman of the Committee for legal affairs of URE Club, partner of «KPD Consulting» legal company, emphasized that Memorandum is not only a call to actual actions and signer’s position, but also the joint activity of real estate market players, including the support in demonstration of better practices for fighting against corruption.

Mykhailo Merkulov, CEO Arricano Real Estate plc, expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for the initiative to join the industry players in the fight against corruption that prevents the state development, and mentioned that such initiative reflects and formalizes the society’s request for fighting against corruption. He highlighted that joining of corporations, which do not give and do not accept bribes, is the good step to the process scaling, and called the organizations from the other fields to support the URE Club’s effort to accelerate the cleaning process. CEO Arricano noted: «The attitude towards the companies that do not pay bribes is the same as towards the aliens. They have more problems due to the laws inadequacy such as: bigger number of lawyers to litigate with the state, bigger number of papers to file complains of officials, who fail to fulfill their professional obligations, the initiatives of introducing amendments to the laws because the gaps should be filled, the additional burden on the business, and processes deceleration. Yet we have already our little victory - the change of working procedure of public registrars with public registers, which makes the transfer of assets in the night more difficult.» Mykhailo Merkulov expressed confidence that little steps cause the great results, and hoped that little steps of industry unions will ensure the improvement of the investment climate in the country.

Tetiana Korotka, Deputy Business-Ombudsman drew attention to the fact that the improvement of the investment climate in the country is one of the principal objectives required for business development. She expressed the hope that the collective steps in decrease of the corruption risks will enable the improvement of business climate and will support the attitude towards Ukraine as reliable and predictable partner for international and internal investments.

The Memorandum has been signed by the companies Arricano, Auchan, Schindler, Ukraine Turnaround Real Estate Fund, Focus Estate Fund, UTG and Aladdin shopping mall.