The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) on November 27, 2020 announced the holding of auctions for the privatization of Vyshniakivsky (Poltava region, alcoholic drinks production), Tkhorivsky (Kyiv region), Kobylovolotsky (Ternopil region) and Velykoliubynsky (Lviv region) distilleries of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt.
According to the press service of the State Property Fund, the online auction for the privatization of Vyshniakivsky distillery will take place on December 21, the starting price is UAH 9.88 million; Tkhorivsky distillery – December 22, the starting price is UAH 22.46 million, Kobylovolotsky distillery – December 23, the starting price is UAH 25.95 million, Velykoliubynsky distillery – December 24, the starting price is UAH 29.97 million.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on December 11, 2019 signed a law on abolishing state monopoly on alcohol production from July 1, 2020, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on December 3, 2019.
The debut auction for the privatization of the first object of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt, Nemyriv distillery (Vinnytsia region), was held on October 15. The plant was sold to LVN Limited LLC, the shareholders of Nemiroff for UAH 55.08 million, which is UAH 5 million higher than the starting price. The winning company was the only one to apply to participate in the auction.
On the whole, starting from October 15, eight Ukrspyrt’s plants have been successfully privatized at online auctions. Two auctions did not take place. As for the distilleries, they will be put up for re-bidding with a reduction in the starting price.
The SPF expects to attract about UAH 2 billion from the privatization of distilleries of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt and the concern Ukrspyrt.
The Cabinet of Ministers has raised the requirements for operators of privatization auctions, in particular, an operator must have at least six employees, a charter capital of at least UAH 1 million and its own call center for selection.
According to the draft regulation, the auction operator must also have an excellent business reputation with regard to the law on prevention and counteraction of legalization (laundering) of proceeds.
In addition, the requirement presupposes having at least a year of experience in the market for the sale of property in the form of auctions and cryptographic protection for a secure connection between the server and bidders.
As indicated in the draft regulation, the charge rate for participation in the privatization auction for an object worth more than UAH 64 million is set at 1% (previously it was set for objects worth over UAH 250 million), from UAH 4 million to UAH 64 million it is 2.5% (previously the charge rate of 2.4% was set for objects from UAH 1 million to UAH 4 million), and up to UAH 4 million it is 4% (previously the maximum charge was 3% for objects up to UAH 1 million).
The Greek energy company Flow Energy & Environmental Operations S.A. is interested in Ukrainian electronic oil and gas auctions and is ready to invest up to EUR 1.2 million in hydrocarbon deposits, Ukraine’s State Service of Geology and Subsoil has reported.
According to the service, the energy company got acquainted with the primary and secondary geological information on five fields, auctions for which are scheduled for June 18.
“Our company intends to take part in the next auction. Despite the fact that we are a small company, we are interested in five oil and gas deposits with a total cost of more than EUR 1 million. I hope that this is only the beginning and we will be active participants in the Ukrainian energy market,” the press service said citing the president of the Greek company, Tereza Fokianou.
The service noted the low level of participation of foreign companies in oil and gas auctions, but said they were working to attract foreign investors.
The Smart Energy Group is mulling a possibility of participating in the first electronic oil and gas auction scheduled for March 6, 2019, Smart Energy CEO Sergei Glazunov said at a press conference in Kyiv. “We looked at 10 licenses that are exhibited on March 6. There are several interesting facilities there, and we are now deciding whether to participate in them. We hope that the auctions will be held as expected – transparently and in an understandable way,” Glazunov said.
As reported, on October 24, 2018, a temporary procedure for implementing a pilot project for the introduction of electronic trading in the sale of licenses for the use of subsoil came into force. In accordance with it, the licenses are sold exclusively through electronic bidding.
On December 6, 2018 the State Service for Geology and Mineral Resources put up the first 10 sites for electronic oil and gas auctions. At the second round at the end of January seven more sites were exposed.
The first auction will take place on March 6, 2019.
