(Wire reports) The State Property Fund is looking into a transaction that recently put control of the Eximnaftoprodukt oil-transshipment terminal into Swiss hands, according to Yosef Voitsekhovsky, head of the SPF’s corporate management department.
Eximnaftoprodukt is Ukraine’s largest oil transshipment terminal.
A commission has been assembled to conduct an investigation into the transfer of Eximnaftoprodukt stock from Ukrnaftopodukt to Medis Holding, a Swiss company. The commission is expected to report its findings within the next several weeks, Voitsekhovsky said.
The transfer arose after Ukrnaftopodukt borrowed approximately $3 million from Medis to finance a fuel purchase last year. Ukrnaftoprodukt defaulted on the loan and in doing so lost its shares in Eximnaftoprodukt, which had been pledged as collateral.
Ukrnaftoprodukt economics department Director Andry Maksymyshyn said he felt the deal complied with the law.
“It’s a standard financial operation that was carried out in fear of bankruptcy,” Maksymyshyn said. “From my point of view, it’s legal.”
Ukrnaftoprodukt owns several regional enterprises involved in the retail petroleum-products trade, including 50 percent of Khersonnaftoprodukt and 51 percent of Luhansknaftoprodukt.
Eximnaftoprodukt is Ukraine’s largest terminal for transshipping petroleum and petroleum products. It ships around 15 million tons of petroleum and petroleum products per year.
Privatization results
The Ukrainsky Polimetally state company sold its 25 percent-plus-one share stake in the Marhanets Ore Enrichment Plant on the PFTS on April 13. The package brought Hr 16,245,900.
The company sold the share package through the Ukranet-Trust company. The buyer was undisclosed.
According to the State Committee for Securities and the Stock Market, Privatbank owns 23.62 percent of the Marhanets Ore-Enrichment Plant. The Cypriot company Varkedge Limited owns 10.4 percent.
Marhanets Ore-Enrichment Plant is the second-largest manganese ore extractor in Ukraine.
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The Metallurgia Consortium has agreed to purchase 25 percent of the Meridian shipyard from the SPF. The sole bidder for the shares, Metallurgia will pay Hr 6.5 million.
The Meridian shipyard is a subsidiary of the state-owned Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant, which owns 51 percent of its shares. Meridian’s workers are purchasing 24 percent of Meridian’s shares under privileged conditions.
Upcoming tenders
The SPF has eliminated Ukrenergotransfert and the Azot Work Collective from the competition to acquire a 53.86 percent stake in Rivneazot, Ukraine’s largest chemical plant.
An SPF spokesman said the companies were eliminated because they did not meet the requirements necessary to be considered strategic investors.
As a result, only five companies – Eneko, Ukrenergosbyt, Ukragropromholding, Energotransinvest, and American company IBE Trade – will participate in the competition.
The SPF announced the Rivneazot tender last October. The starting price of the stake is Hr 46.687 million.
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The SPF has announced a tender to sell 25 percent of the shares in ZaporizhVohnetryv, Ukraine’s largest producer of refractory products. The starting price of the share package is Hr 18,622,000. The tender will take place in May.
The SPF has announced a tender to sell 25 percent of the shares in the Donetsk Chemical Reagents Plant at a starting price of Hr 588,000. Bids for the tender will be accepted until May 11, 2001.
The SPF will offer 6.59 percent of the Poltava Ore Mining and Enrichment plant for sale on the First Stock Trading System (PFTS) on June 1. The state-owned Ukrainian Polymetally holding company presently holds a 25 percent stake in the plant, the German-Ukrainian Mega Motors enterprise holds a 20 percent stake, and the Ukrainian-Swiss JV Bari holds a 12 percent stake. The Poltava ore plant is the largest producer of ore pellets in Ukraine.
