Ukraine’s State Property Fund (SPFU) has issued an order to privatize the state-owned energy company Centrenergo in 2022, the fund announced on July 26.
According to the fund, 78.28% of the state-owned company will be subject to privatization, which amounts to 289,205,117 shares worth Hr 375.9 million ($13.9 million). The total is equal to the state’s shares in Centrenergo.
The order stipulates that the shares must be auctioned off over the period from August 2 to December 31, 2021. The starting price of the state-owned company will have to be determined by a special adviser who is still being searched for, the press service of the SPFU told Liga.net, a Ukrainian news website.
In addition to assets of the energy company, assets of coal mining companies, which the Cabinet of Ministers wants to combine with Centrenergo, will also be put up for sale.
The privatization of large enterprises was one of the requirements to receiving a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a stand-by arrangement, with three state-owned companies to be put up for sale in H1 2021.
Along with Centrenergo, five other companies are on the list: the Odesa Port Plant, Electrotyazhmash, coal company Krasnolimanskaya, President Hotel, and titanium producer United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC).
The UMCC will be put up for sale at an auction on Aug. 31, according to previous announcements by the SPFU.
Ukraine so far has only received $2.1 billion from the IMF of it as immediate disbursement and the remaining amount was to be disbursed in phases over four reviews in the established time period and if Ukraine meets the requirements.
Earlier in 2020, lawmakers voted to unblock large-scale privatization in the country, creating an avenue for the selling of large public assets to private companies.
