Ukraine will sell the state shares in eight energy companies, the State Property Fund announced on July 24.
The state is to sell its shares in eight large regional energy producers and distributors through open auctions that will take place on Aug. 15-18 at the Ukrainian Exchange stock exchange.
The sale is the biggest auction of the state property in years. The total of the starting prices of the shares to go on sale is Hr 4.3 billion ($170 million).
The move is also in line with Ukraine’s aspiration to privatize most of its 3,400-plus state-owned enterprises, the goal that’s been pronounced many times in the past three years.
The state will sell its 25-percent shares in eight regional companies: Odesaoblenergo (with a reserve price set at Hr 631 million or $25 million), Donetskenergo (reserve price set at Hr 143 or $5.5 million), Sumyoblenergo (reserve price Hr 370 million or $14.5 million), Donbasenergo (reserve price Hr 669 million or $26.5 million), Dniproenergo (reserve price Hr 728 million or $29 million), Dniprooblenergo (reserve price Hr 490 million or $17 million), Zahidenergo (reserve price Hr 347 million or $13.5 million) and Kyivenergo (reserve price Hr 759 million or $30.3 million).
In five out of the eight companies, the majority stakes belong to DTEK, the country’s largest energy group that is part of the System Capital Management holding, owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov.
DTEK couldn’t immediately comment on whether the company was planning to participate in the auctions to build up its shares or enter new companies through the state’s minority stakes.
In Sumyoblenergo, the majority stake is owned by Konstantin Grigorishin, a Ukrainian businessman, through Cyprus-based companies.
In Donbasenergo, 60.8 percent are owned by two foreign citizens, American Robert Bensh and Greek Andreas Cerny. The Ukrainian media have linked the company to Oleksandr Yanukovych, the son of the disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Back in October, then-Chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Ihor Bilous claimed that the sale the state shares in all energy companies will bring $300 million.
For now, the state maintains its majority shares in a number of other regional energy companies, including Khmelnytskoblenergo (70 percent), Mykolaivoblebergo (70 percent), Kharkivoblenergo (65 percent), Ternopiloblenergo (50.9 percent), Zaporizhzhiaoblenenergo (60.2 percent), and Cherkassyoblenergo (46 percent). They are to be sold eventually, too.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade a major strategic plan that determines the future of the 3,444 state-owned enterprises. The plan sets a goal to privatize 893 of them in 2017-2020. Others are to be given away through concession deals, or kept in state property, or liquidated.
The largest companies in terms of assets and that are subject to privatization are the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine, Oschadbank, PrivatBank, Ukreximbank, Centrenergo, the Agrarian Fund, Ukrgasbank and Turboatom.
