State Property Fund of Ukraine sells energy state assets for a pittance
In March, another attempt is planned to sell a 25% stake in the energy supply company Sumyoblenergo on the stock exchange. The energy system of the Sumy region remains connected with the energy systems of the Russian Federation.
The sale, in principle, might not attract special attention due to the fact that the sale of certain volumes of shareholdings in regional energy companies is a common practice, but there is one thing. The fact is that this is another company that is going to be sold significantly cheaper than its original price. In other words, many state-owned companies and their subsidiaries in Ukraine are being sold at a very peculiar auction, where the bidding goes only towards bringing down the price.
The State Property Fund will put up a quarter of the company's shareholding at a price 3,6 times lower than the original cost (about UAH 106 million). The reasoning, as in a number of similar cases, is as follows: no bids for the initial price have been received so far. The situation is in many ways reminiscent of the Russian privatization of the 90s.
It is noteworthy that 10% of the shares of the energy supply company have long been owned by offshore structures registered in Cyprus: Bikontia Enterprises, Larva Investments and UA Energy Distribution Holding. Earlier, offshore companies managed to acquire shares of many generating and fuel companies in Ukraine for next to nothing. At the same time, it turns out that behind the Cypriot offshores are those persons who are in the supreme power of the country, including the oligarch-president Petro Poroshenko.
- Sumyoblenergo
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