Unnamed Western investors provided the cash to buy four of the six electricity providers sold this month
A state-owned Slovak company that claims to be backed by Western capital won tenders for three Ukrainian electricity distributors (oblenergos) in the nation’s second round of energy sales, the State Property Fund announced on April 24.
Slovakia’s Vykhodoslovenske Energeticke Zavody (VEZ) turned out to be the sole bidder in the April 24 tender for the three oblenergos, offering slightly more than the starting price for two of them and a big premium on the third.
VEZ offered Hr 112.1 million for a 65 percent stake in Khersonoblenergo, up from a starting price of Hr 111.5 million, and Hr 88.2 million for a 51 percent stake in Kirovohradoblenergo, up from the Hr 87 million the government set as a minimum price for the shares.
In a third tender, Vykhodoslovenske offered Hr 100.9 million for a 70 percent stake in Sevastopolenergo, more than double the state’s starting price of Hr 35.3 million.
Oleksandr Bondar, the head of the State Property Fund, said the fund will conduct a “technical re-evaluation” of the tenders, since VEZ was the sole bidder. The procedure is a formality that will not affect the outcome of the sales, Bondar said.
The purchases brought the number of Ukrainian oblenergos purchased by the Kosice-based company in the last week to four. On April 17, the SPF announced that the Slovak company won a tender for Zhytomyroblenergo with a bid of Hr 190 million.
Overall, the firm has laid out $90 million for its four oblenergo acquisitions.
Peter Sukovsky, a managing director at Vykhodoslovenske, admitted to the Post after the announcement that his company does not have the funds to make the purchases. He said the necessary money was being provided by a consortium of Western companies. He said American and British firms were among the members of the consortium but refused to name them.
Sukovsky said that the Western firms were unable to participate in the tenders directly because they are investors, not energy companies. Tender conditions required that all participants have experience in the energy industry. Sukovsky said his company will provide the technical expertise for the Ukrainian energy companies it bought.
Sukovsky denied rumors that his company was being used as a front in the tenders for either Russian or Ukrainian businesses.
VEZ, one of Slovakia’s three electricity distribution companies, will itself be put up for sale this December, Sukovsky said. He said Electricite de France and Germany’s RWE Essen have expressed the greatest interest in buying VEZ.
SPF’s Bondar said he was disappointed by the lack of interest in the tenders displayed by strategic Western investors, despite a number of measures taken by the government to attract foreign buyers. He said he will lobby in the government to make privatization tenders more accessible for Ukrainian and Russian companies in the future.
