The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) allowed Timekol LLC (Kyiv) to privatize Borschevsk distillery (Ternopil region), which is a part of state enterprise Ukrspirt, the right to buy for UAH 17.7 million the company won at an online auction in October 2022.
The text of the respective permit No.306-r, dated December 22, 2022, was published on the Committee’s website on Tuesday.
According to the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Timecool (till November 2020 – Business Star Group LLC) with the registered capital of 25 thousand UAH is Oksana Zakharova (earlier the company was owned by Sergey Afanasiev). This legal entity is engaged in the purchase, sale and lease of real estate, organization of building construction and non-specialized wholesale trade.
This company already has experience in privatization of assets of state enterprise “Ukrspirt” – in November 2021 it won the right to privatize Uladivskyi distillery (Vinnitsa region) for UAH 50,1 mln in an online auction “Prozorro.Selling”.
According to the State Property Fund (SPF), the only property complex Borschevsk distillery consists of 812 buildings, structures, movable and other property, including industrial buildings, bard storage facility, boiler room, distillery, fermentation and carbonic acid plants, pigsty, greenhouses, hangars, warehouses, garages, etc. The facility is equipped with basic technological equipment and the necessary utilities.
The enterprise is located on two plots of land in Borschev with a total area of 7.4 hectares.
On September 19, Aqua Solar Invest LLC (Bershad, Vinnytsia region) won the right to privatize the separate property of the Kobylovoloki distillery (Kobylovoloki village, Ternopil region), which is part of the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt”, for UAH 70 million 253 thousand, which is 2.8 times exceeds its starting cost of UAH 25.2 million.
The corresponding results of trading between the six participants were published on the website of the Prozorro.Sales online platform on Monday. In addition to Aqua Solar Invest, Shtrihi LLC (Kyiv) offered UAH 70 million 252 thousand 900 for the distillery (UAH 100 less than the final price of the lot), and Zakhidny Resource Center LLC (Druzhba, Ternopil region) – UAH 70 million (UAH 253 thousand less).
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Aqua Solar Invest with an authorized capital of UAH 25 million is Alexander Yaroshenko (25% in the authorized capital), Lilia Astapova (25%), and Elena Smirnova (25%), with Until December 2020, the company was wholly owned by Felix Lutsky.
This company already has experience in privatizing the assets of the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt” – in October 2020, it won the right to privatize the Bershad distillery for UAH 19.81 million at an online auction in Prozorro.Sale, and in early February 2022 completed a deal on its purchase, having received the appropriate permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
The company is engaged in the distillation, rectification and blending of spirits, while until January 2021, its line of business was listed as real estate.
Aqua Solar Invest in 2020 received UAH 0.1 thousand in revenue and UAH 411.6 thousand in net loss. For 2021, the legal entity has not yet provided financial statements.
The immovable property of the Kobylovoloksky distillery subject to privatization with a total area of 11.5 thousand square meters. m is located on seven land plots in the Terebovlyansky district of the Ternopil region with a total area of 36.95 hectares. The asset was put up for sale by the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) on September 1.
The enterprise includes production buildings, a granary, an alcohol storage, hangars, pumping stations, a greenhouse, a starch and malt workshop, a gas station, etc., as well as technological equipment and necessary communications.
The daily capacity of the distillery is 2.7 thousand decalitres of ethyl alcohol. The company was founded in 1905, modernized in 2016. Production at the facility has been temporarily suspended.
As reported, the State Property Fund has already put up the Kobylovolok distillery for a privatization auction in December 2020 with a starting price of UAH 25.9 million. As a result of the auction, the value of the asset more than tripled – up to UAH 81.75 million, but the winning companies eventually abandoned the privatization of the distillery.
The Cabinet of Ministers has transferred eight state-owned enterprises to the management of the State Property Fund (SPF): Ecotransenergo, Kharkiv Industrial and Trade Enterprise, State Scientific and Technological Production Enterprise Veresk, Settlement and Clearing Center, Industrial and Metallurgical Consulting, state-owned enterprise State Information Analytics, Polupanivka Quarry, as well as the state institution Partner Fund.
The resolution was adopted by the government at a meeting on Wednesday without discussion.
According to an explanatory note to the draft resolution, out of these enterprises, as of July 1, 2020, only three were economically active. These are Ecotransenergo, Kharkiv Industrial and Trade Enterprise, and State Information Analytics.
The total value of Ecotransenergo’s assets as of in the middle of 2020 was estimated at UAH 47 million, Kharkiv Industrial and Trade Enterprise – UAH 22 million, while the value of their assets in the first half of 2020 fell by 6.5% and 3%, respectively, according to the document.
In the first half of last year, both companies posted losses totaling over UAH 4 million, while Ecotransenergo also has wage arrears of over UAH 1.7 million.
As indicated in the explanatory note, there is no data on the activities of SOE State Information Analytics.
The privatization plan for this year includes the sale of 25 large state-owned enterprises (SOE), First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“In 2018, we would offer 25 large enterprises for sale,” he said at a meeting of the National Investment Council in Kyiv on Friday.
“Our goal is to attract strategic investors who would be able to modernize production at large industrial enterprises and include them to the global chain of added value,” Kubiv said.
