The little-known investment firm Diskont-2000 resurfaced again last week, buying small stakes in three of Ukraine's regional electricity distributors, known as oblenergos. The company previously acquired large stakes in the country's metal makers and a major machine-building plant.
Diskont-2000 on April 6 purchased a 6.25 percent stake in Prykarpattyaoblenergo and a 2.02 percent stake in Sumyoblenergo via the Kyiv International Stock Exchange. The company paid Hr 4.7 million ($870,000) and Hr 2 million ($380,000) for the respective share packages.
Both oblenergos are still 25 percent owned by the government, with the remainder of the shares held by various investors. Diskont-2000's purchases added to the controlling stakes in the two oblenergos belonging to Court Holding, a group of stake holders of which Diskont-2000 is a member, according to Ukrainian News.
On April 4 Diskont-2000 paid Hr 6.75 million ($1.25 million) for a larger 8.6 percent stake in Chernihivoblenergo. Oblenergos are considered to be among Ukraine's most attractive state properties slated for sale, since each of them holds a monopoly or near monopoly on electricity supplies in their regions. The State Property Fund is planning to offer majority stakes in several oblenergos via a tender later this year.
Diskont-2000 has been an enthusiastic participant in sales of stakes in other Ukrainian companies. Earlier this year, the company bought a 25 percent stake in the Frunze machine-building plant, a 17 percent stake in Zaporizhya ferroalloy plant and a 15 percent stake in Dniprospetsstal metallurgical factory.
Analysts said Diskont-2000 is a part of a domestic financial group linked to prominent businessman and parliament deputy Hryhory Surkis. Diskont's managers weren't immediately available for comment.
At the same time, a sale of a 10.86 percent stake in Makiyivka metallurgical giant last week generated no interest from investors: No bids were submitted. Sales in Ukraine's metallurgical industry have so far drawn no investors except the factories' own managers. Experts have repeatedly pointed to the plants' obsolete equipment and the tendency to indulge in bizarre barter schemes as major factors discouraging outside investors experienced in metallurgy from buying stakes. The fund plans to tender a controlling 50 percent plus 1 stake in the Makiyivka metallurgical plant later this year.
SPF ANNOUNCEMENTS
The SPF said it will formally announce later this month a tender for a 67 percent stake in the Lysychansk-based LyNOS oil refinery. The fund failed in several earlier attempts to sell LyNOS, Ukraine's second-largest oil refinery. A shortage of crude to process has recently kept many of the country's oil refineries idle for months. Ukraine sources most of its crude oil from Russia.
The winner of the tender will have to supply LyNOS with 4.5 million tons of crude annually. The starting price for the stake has not yet been set, but the fund's head Oleksandr Bondar has pledged that the figure will be an attractive one. The refinery's heavy debt burden is the sole reason pushing down the price of the stake. The buyer will have to pay off $250 million in the refinery's debts, in addition to fulfilling other conditions attached to the deal.
Russia's Tyumen Oil has already announced it will bid for the stake and is regarded as the likely winner of the competition.
The fund also announced it will sell a stake in a smaller refinery by the end of this year. The sale of the stake – 30 percent of the Halychyna oil refinery in western Ukraine – will be conducted via a tender, the SPF said.
And in another announcement, the fund extended the deadline for bids in the tender for a 25.22 percent stake in the huge turbine-maker Turboatom. The new date is May 17.
The fund said Turboatom's managers are in talks with a strategic investor on their participation in the tender. The starting price of the stake is Hr 56.8 million.
