Luhanskteplovoz Tender Faces Two Threats, One Possible Boon.

The tender for a 76% stake in Luhanskteplovoz, Ukraine’s only maker of locomotives, planned on Oct. 3 has come under threat from a lawsuit filed by the Privat business group, which didn’t qualify for the tender, and perhaps also from the new government, judging from comments by the State Property Fund’s chairwoman, Valentina Semenyuk. A group of Privat-controlled companies are reportedly claiming that the qualifying conditions were illegal. Meanwhile, Semenyuk said yesterday that Andry Klyuyev, deputy prime minister, had made a statement while in Moscow that the tender would not be held and instead the government would create a joint venture based on LTPL. Semenyuk said she was absolutely against cancelling the tender as it would discredit the SPF and the government. Also, the UNIAN news agency, citing an unnamed SPF source, said that Russia’s Severstal plans to take part in the tender. Olha Pankiv: If the government really wants to stop or delay the tender, Privat’s lawsuit could be used as grounds. However, Klyuyev’s alleged statement hasn’t been reported anywhere else so far as we know, and we have not seen any other signs that the government wants to cancel the tender. If Severstal joins, it would be one of the leading bidders, alongside the current front runner, Russia’s Transmashholding. The extra competition would likely push up the final price. Severstal’s subsidiary Severstal-Trans previously announced plans to create its own park of locomotives.