Mariupol Heavy Machinery 11% stake to be privatized in 1Q09

The State Property Fund of Ukraine announced yesterday it will privatize an 11% stake in Mariupol Heavy Machinery (MZVM: BUY) on one of local stock exchanges by the end of March 2009. Inna Perepelytsya: We believe the most probable winner of the privatization tender is current major shareholder UPTK, which has plans to consolidate assets in the industry into a railway machinery holding company. Furthermore, we do not rule out that it was forces related to UPTK that prodded the SPF to offer up the stake for sale. If UPTK acquires the stake, it would increase its share in the company to ~60%, according to our estimates of direct and indirectly held assets.