12 July 2008
State Property Fund Head Valentyna Semenyuk said that the government’s 25%+1 stake in Oranta Insurance, the largest ‘classical’ insurance company in Ukraine, would be put on the privatization block again for a starting price of about USD 16 mln. The government hopes to raise more than USD 20 mln from the sale. Alexander Viktorov: Among the most probable buyers is Kazakh bank TuranAlem, which supposedly bought about a 40% stake in the company in early 2006. They have already expressed their intentions to participate in the tender. In 2006 Oranta Insurance’s gross premiums written amounted to USD 95 mln. According to our estimates, recent acquisitions in the Ukrainian insurance sector were closed in the P/GPW range of 1.5-2.0x, which implies a price for the stake in Oranta of USD 36-48 mln.