Ukraine’s Chocolate King president finds promise tough to keep

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-chocolate-king-president-finds-promise-tough-keep-070615891.html ^ | Steve Stecklow and Anjuli Davies

[wetphoenix]

KIEV (Reuters) - The Chocolate King is finding it difficult to relinquish his throne.

Petro Poroshenko, one of Ukraine's richest men and owner of a sweets empire, made an unusual promise last spring while campaigning to be president - if elected, he would sell most of his business assets.

"As president of Ukraine, I only want to concern myself with the good of the country and that is what I will do," he told an interviewer.

Poroshenko won the election, but he hasn't succeeded yet at keeping his campaign promise.

With his country at war with Russian-backed separatists in the east, the economy faltering and its currency weakening, Ukraine's 49-year-old president hasn't sold any of his assets, including his most valuable one: a majority stake in Roshen Confectionery Corp, Ukraine's biggest sweets maker. His promise appears to be a victim of the very problems that face him as president.

Executives at the two financial firms that Poroshenko has hired to help sell his assets caution that deals, particularly in former Soviet republics and eastern Europe, can often take a year or more. But they also concede that their client's timing is terrible.