The Cabinet of Ministers intends to approve conditions for another attempt to privatize the Odesa Portside Chemical Plant, according to the government press service citing Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman as saying during his meeting with heads of French companies ahead of the Ukrainian-French business forum to be held in Paris Oct 27-28.
Volodymyr Groysman informed the interlocutors that during its session on Wednesday the Government would take a decision about the start of OPP privatization, according to the report.
”We will be happy if French businessmen take part in the privatization of the plant,” said Groysman. ”I assure you it will be an open, public and competitive privatization.”
The prime minister has noted that there are about 3,800 state-owned enterprises in Ukraine.
”A hundred, maybe two [companies] are of strategic importance, all the rest must be sold to leverage investment,” said Groysman.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Odesa Portside Chemical Plant (the town of Yuzhniy, Odesa region) is Ukraine`s second largest producer of ammonia and urea, and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizers. It specializes in reloading chemicals coming from CIS countries for export. OPP has a monopoly on the national market of special services on reception, cooling, and reloading of ammonia.
The plant is a major state asset, set to be sold in 2016. A 99.6% stake in OPP is put for sale.
OPP was put on privatization list in 2015 and was ready for sale in the first half of 2016. On July 18, an auction for the sale of 99.6% stake in OPP was held, with a starting price of UAH 13.175 billion (about $520 million). However, the sale failed because of the lack of bids. The State Property Fund named the inflated starting price as one of the reasons of such failure.
Later, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the SPF-proposed changes to the pricing method, the implementation of which allows reducing the starting price of 99.6% of shares ahead of another attempt to sell the asset. The starting price of the OPP could be set at $150 million.
