The State Property Fund expects to raise UAH 10 billion from sale of 92.79% of Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s largest telecommunications company, Fund Chairman Oleksandr Riabchenko has told a news conference.
As to him, today this shareholding costs approximately UAH 9 billion but in Riabchenko’s data in the coming months company capitalization will resume its growth and hopes this trend to continue in the long run.
“If the sale is not postponed we expect receiving ten billion hryvnias for this stake,” Fund Chairman said.
If the authorities want to get the money raise through the sale of Ukrtelecom before the end of the year, he added hereto, the privatization competition should be called namely for August, when the Property Fund plans to call a tender for selling the company, stated in its approximate schedule of putting up property for privatization.
Ukrtelecom is still subject to the Transport and Communications Ministry, Riabchenko added, and the Cabinet of Ministers is already studying its transfer to the Property Fund for subsequent privatization.
Only after that the Fund will be able to work out conditions of the privatization competition, he emphasized.
On top of that Riabchenko said that he personally was against any restrictions for prospect bidders, including limitations for companies that own telecom assets in Ukraine.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the State Property Fund intends to auction the 92.79-percent stake in the Ukrtelecom in August.
The stockholding of Ukrtelecom is to be sold using openness of price offer.
The company’s registered capital makes UAH 4.681 billion.
In March 2009, the State Property Fund’s acting chairman Dmytro Parfenenko said that about 10 companies were interested in privatizing Ukrtelecom, including Nomura (Japan), Rostelekom (Russia), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Magyar Telekom (Hungary), and Turkcell (Turkey).
Ukrtelecom reported a loss of UAH 456.426 million for the year 2009, when its net revenues increased by UAH 225.202 million or 3.39% to UAH 6,870.931 million compared with 2008.
Ukrtelecom has a 78.5% share of the fixed-line telephone market in Ukraine and provides services to 9.9 million subscribers.
