The State Property Fund said it has targeted 22 firms for privatization next year, and that it hopes to generate Hr 2.06 billion from the sales.
The fund said that it would seek Cabinet approval to hold competitive tenders for sale of the companies (See chart).
Absent from the list were stakes in Ukrtelecom and nine regional energy companies, all of which were originally scheduled for sale this year.
A fund spokesman quoted SPF head Oleksandr Bondar as saying that the SPF had not included the companies in the 2003 list because there was no guarantee that they would be ready for sale next year.
The Cabinet of Ministers earlier postponed the sale of the nine oblenergos until problems related to their debts could be resolved.
Ukrtelecom’s privatization had been planned for this year, and proceeds from the sale should have comprised a significant portion of the year’s privatization revenue.
So far this year, the government has earned just under Hr 457 million in privatization revenues, against planned receipts of Hr 5.9 billion. Next year’s revenue expectation has been pared back to Hr 2 billion.
Tender Announcements
The State Property Fund said that it would try a second time to sell the state’s 25.17 percent stake in Dniproazot, a Dnipropetrovsk Oblast fertilizer manufacturer. For the second tender, to be conducted on Oct. 21, the asking price has been reduced by 30 percent to Hr 12.24 million.
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The Crimean Property Fund said it would sell the state’s 33.79 percent stake in the Brom plant on Oct. 14. The starting price of the stake is Hr 5.617 million.
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The SPF said it would open a tender for sale of the government’s 80.27 percent stake in Velt, a Kharkov‑based electrical equipment manufacturer, on Nov. 19. The starting price of the stake is Hr 22.637 million.
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The SPF said it would sell 25.49 percent stake in the Kerch Metallurgical Plant on the stock exchange on Oct. 15. The move comes after the fund tried unsuccessfully to hold a tender for the shares on two separate occasions.
Tender Results
The SPF sold 35.74 percent of the shares in the Severny Ore Mining and Enrichment Plant to Ukrainian Metallurgical Company for Hr 89 million after the Kyiv Economic Court lifted an earlier ban on sale of the shares.
The State Property Fund announced a tender for the stake on July 24, with a starting price of Hr 86.8 million.
Nine companies attempted to participate in the competition, but the SPF considered only Ukrsibbank and Ukrainian Metallurgical Company qualified to bid.
After Interpipe and Manitoba, two of the excluded bidders, filed suit, the court issued a stay on the tender pending review.
Another potential bidder, Sukha Balka, said it planned to ask a court to overturn the award. A company officer alleged that Ukrsibbank and Ukrainian Metallurgical Company are related, and that as a result there was not true competition for the stake.
Ukrsibbank has been managing the state’s 50 percent plus 1 share stake in the plant since November 1999.
