The sale of the Zaporizhya Aluminum Plant (ZAP) to a unit of Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ, thought to be a done deal after months of controversy, is apparently not a done deal yet.
Avtovaz-Invest, Avtovaz’ foreign trade arm, said March 22 that a local court in Zaporizhya had prevented it from registering its purchase of a 68 percent stake in ZAP and taking up seats on the factory’s board.
The decision came a day after the State Securities and Exchange Commission determined that stock registrar Service-Register had not violated securities laws by refusing to register AvtoVAZ-Invest as the new owner of shares. Service-Register is the registrar for ZAP shares.
The setbacks for AvtoVAZ came about a month after the SPF, after months of wrangling with Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, finally got the go-ahead from the courts to register the ZAP sale to AvtoVAZ.
Yushchenko had argued that the stake should have been sold to a higher bidder, Kremenchuk-based truck maker KrAZ. But KrAZ’s $101.5 million bid was thrown out by the courts, which decided that KrAZ had entered the tender illegally.
But KrAZ’s drive to wrest control of ZAP through the courts is apparently not dead yet. Service-Register claimed that it had been barred from recognizing AvtoVAZ-Invests purchase pursuant to an order entered by a court based in none other than KrAZ’s hometown of Kremenchuk.
The State Securities and Exchange Commission agreed with Service-Register that until a final decision is made in court, or the Kremenchuk court’s order is withdrawn, AvtoVAZ-Invest cannot properly be registered.
AvtoVAZ-Invest said that it intended to appeal the Kremenchuk court’s ruling.
AvtoVAZ-Invest concluded a purchase agreement with the SPF on Feb. 8 and paid for the share package within a week. Formally, however, it is still not the controlling owner of ZAP.
Meanwhile, AvtoVAZ-Invest has settled its conflict with ZAP’s plant leadership.
AvtoVAZ Invest Vice President Sergei Petrov said AvtoVAZ-Invest and Ivan Bastryga, ZAP’s director general, have agreed that Bastryga will remain director of the plant until the next meeting of shareholders. Representatives of AvtoVAZ Invest will have access to the management of the plant.
AvtoVAZ-Invest’s Petrov said he has become ZAP’s financial director.
AvtoVAZ Invest representatives had said during the conflict that they intended to dismiss Bastryga.
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The government will verify the legality of the sale of 25 percent plus one share in the Ordzhonikidze ore mining and enrichment plant to the Ukrayinski Polymetally company, Deputy Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna told journalists on March 23.
Dubyna said that Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko ordered the planned verification.
Controversy over the sale arose after the state-owned Ukrainsky Polymetally sold the 25 percent stake plus one share in the Ordzhonikidze ore mining and enrichment plant to an undisclosed buyer for Hr 22.1 million on March 11.
Tender Announcements
The State Property Fund said it will begin selling the state’s 21.66 percent interest in the Meridian shipyard on the stock exchange next month. The share package has a starting price of Hr 2.1 million.
The SPF announced a tender to sell 25 percent of the Meridian dockyards last summer at Hr 8 million. Only the Metallurgia Consortium bid on the package.
The Meridian shipyard is an open joint stock company related to the Chornomorsky Ship Building Plant, which owns 51 percent of the enterprise.
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The SPF announced that a tender of 95 percent of the Etal scientific production association will take place between April 1 and Dec. 31.
The SPF plans to put the other 5 percent on stock exchanges between April 1 and August 1.
The statutory fund of the Etal scientific-production association is Hr 23.9 million. The nominal value of one share is Hr 0.25.
The company, which produces low-voltage contact equipment, microprocessor equipment and assembly electric drives, is located in Alexandria, Kirovohrad region.
