Odesa Portside auction ends with challenges

The privatization auction for a 99.567% stake in Odesa Portside by the State Property Fund yesterday ended with an SPF commission rejecting the results, claims of collusion, and the winning bidder pledging to fight to have the auction upheld in court. The auction, which was televised live in Ukraine, was won by Nortima, a vehicle of Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoyskiy, for UAH 5 bln (about USD 624 mln). Within an hour of the auction’s conclusion, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused the three participants in the tender of collusion to keep the price low (the starting price was UAH 4 bln), and the SPF’s commission on competition rejected the results based on procedural violations, according to local media reports. In his turn, Kolomoyskiy said yesterday that he would seek to have the auction upheld in court.