Business anomaly: how 2,367 companies “settled” in a Kyiv five-story building
15 May 10:28
In the center of Kyiv, at the usual address at 12 Melnykova Street, there is neither a business center nor an office tower. It is a five-story residential building. But it is here that a record number of companies are registered – 2,367 legal entities. And this is no mistake: the building has been leading the way among mass business registration addresses in Ukraine for several years. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Opendatabot.
Where most businesses are registered at one address
1,654 addresses for mass registration of companies were recorded in Ukraine as of May 2025, according to the Unified State Register.
A total of 180 thousand companies have registered their legal addresses in these locations. Most of them are located in Kyiv. The capital also holds a record: the address where more than 2.3 thousand businesses are registered.
9,318 companies have appeared in the places of mass registration since the start of the full-scale registration. 2,775 of them joined last year, which means that the number of such “registrants” decreased by almost a quarter over the year. Currently, 1,654 addresses can be classified as mass business registration points, more than half of them in Kyiv.
Where most companies are registered
180 thousand companies are registered at these addresses, 83% of which are active.
Most of these businesses are located in Kyiv – 68% or 101 thousand.
Another 6% of companies are located in Kharkiv region – 9.4 thousand.
Dnipropetrovs’k region rounds out the top three with 4.5% or 6.6 thousand businesses.
Record number of companies at one address
Most companies (2,367) are registered in Kyiv, at 12 Melnykova Street. According to the map, this is an ordinary five-story residential building. This address has been a leader in terms of companies since 2018, when Opendatabot first started researching this topic.
If we assume that the average office size for one company is 100 square meters, then to actually accommodate all these companies, 237,300 square meters of office space is needed. Accordingly, the building at 12 Melnykova should be at least 1.5 Gullivers in Kyiv.
By the way, 100 companies are currently officially registered in Gulliver Hall.
What do companies at mass registration addresses do?
30.6% of all companies registered at such addresses are engaged in wholesale trade, except for trade in motor vehicles and motorcycles.
This is approximately 45.7 thousand companies.
Why businesses are registered at mass registration addresses
Attorney Oleksiy Koltok, partner at Sayenko Kharenko, explains that registration of a company at a mass registration address (except for business center addresses) is one of the signs of a shell company – this is explicitly stated in the financial monitoring regulations. A mass registration address is an address where more than 50 legal entities, trusts or other legal entities are registered.
The expert emphasizes that such registration is not illegal, but it poses certain risks. In particular, banks, insurance companies, or other institutions should conduct in-depth checks and request documents that refute signs of fictitiousness. Otherwise, you may be denied service.
In addition, the State Tax Service checks such companies more thoroughly, especially during on-site inspections. If the business is not found at the registration address, its tax invoices may be blocked. In addition, the tax authorities may question the income tax expenses and VAT tax credit accrued when receiving goods/services from a company at the mass registration address.
Koltok points out that these risks also apply to the company’s partners, which is why such registration can have a negative impact on business reputation and business relations.
