President Kuchma denied on March 10 rumors that Ukraine is planning to give Russia shares in its most attractive enterprises to pay off its massive gas debts.
Russian and Ukrainian media have recently speculated Russia was seeking stakes in Ukraine's leading companies as debt payment. Media reports suggested Russia has compiled a list of Ukrainian state properties, stakes in which it would accept in lieu of gas debt payments.
The list reportedly included Ukraine's oil and gas pipelines, a stake in Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, Antonov aircraft plant, several oil refineries, metallurgical plants and other valuable industrial pieces.
Kuchma appeared firm on the issue in a March 10 interview with daily newspaper Fakty.
'There can be no question of handing over Ukrainian companies to repay gas debts,' Kuchma said in the interview.
Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov agreed last month that Ukraine's gas debt totaled at least $1.4 billion as of the beginning of this year. But a final figure hasn't been agreed, as Russia claims the real figure is about $1 billion more than that.
Recent differences in gas debt estimates reflect the sides' different approaches to calculations. Russia insists that debts of Ukrainian commercial traders should be included in the overall figure. Ukraine has denied responsibility for commercial gas debts.
Ukraine consumes some 70-75 billion cubic meters of gas a year, with imports from Russia annually totaling 55 billion cubic meters.
Ukraine has recently turned to barter schemes to help whittle away at its gas debts to Russia. Bartered commodities have ranged from agricultural goods to strategic bombers. SPF refuses to up stake in Mykolaiv Alumina Plant
State Property Fund head Oleksandr Bondar announced on March 14 the government had decided not to increase the stake on sale in the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant (MAP), as the International Monetary Fund had earlier requested.
The IMF asked Ukraine to up the stake in MAP on offer from 30 percent to 55 percent. Bondar said that in the government's view, compliance with the IMF's request was not in Ukraine's interests.
Ukraine has been widely accused of rigging the MAP tender in favor of Russia's Siberian Aluminum group, which claims to already control about 36 percent of the plant's shares. If that is true, Siberian Aluminum is the only bidder that stands to gain the coveted majority share in the plant by winning the current tender.
Siberian Aluminum's competitors, most notably Trans World Group, have vocally criticized the government for not making a majority share available.
The IMF registered the same complaint, but did not accuse Ukraine of playing favorites. The state currently holds a 55 percent share in the plant.
According to Bondar, the SPF had received four bids on MAP as of March 13 – the deadline for submitting bids.
He said the bidders include Siberian Aluminum and the Krasnoyarsk aluminum plant, another Russian aluminum giant linked to Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
The other two bidders are the Dnipropetrovsk-based National Aluminum Company and the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Aluminum.
The fund will make public the details of the four tender applications on March 20, he said.
Bondar also noted that the SPF hopes the cash raised from the sale of a 30 percent stake in MAP will greatly exceed the Hr 115 million set as the stake's starting price. USE results
The SPF raised Hr 29.3 million from sale of small stakes in three regional electricity distributors via the Ukrainian Stock Exchange on March 7.
The fund sold a 7.07 percent stake in Odessaoblenergo to the company Atlanta Capital at Hr 1.77 per share. The starting price was Hr 1.17 per share.
The SPF also sold a 2.29 percent stake in Sevastopoloblenergo and a 1.81 percent stake in Krymoblenergo. At the same time, the fund failed to sell an 8.63 percent stake in Chernivtsioblenergo.
The SPF drummed up another Hr 7.46 million through the USE on March 14 by selling a 15 percent stake in Dniprospetsstal to a company called Discount-2000. in trades on the Ukrainian Stock Exchange.
The state has now divested itself of its entire stake in Dniprospetsstal.
A group of several offshore companies hold a controlling stake in the company, according to Ukrainian News, led by Ukrainian-Irish European Trading Group.
Dniprospetsstal reported a pre-tax profit of Hr 29.37 million in 1999 on sales of nearly Hr 471 million.
On March 1, Discont-2000 bought a 17 percent stake in Zaporizhia ferroalloy plant via the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange.
Tender announcements
The SPF has increased the stake on sale in the Kharkiv tractor plant (KhTZ) from 50 percent to 72.18 percent. Earlier, the SPF planned to tender a 50 percent stake in the company and sell the other 22.18 percent via a stock exchange.
The SPF said it would put the stake on the block by the end of March. The plant makes diesel generators and engines for tractors and combine harvesters.
The charter capital of KhTZ is Hr 2.73 million. Shares in the plant have a nominal value of Hr 0.25.
