SPF Procrastinating with Ukrtelecom, OPP, Turboatom and Oblenergos Privatization

The State Property Fund announced that it intends to postpone the privatization of Ukrtelecom (UTEL: HOLD), the Odesa Portside Plant, Turboatom (TATM: BUY) and six Oblenergos: Odesaoblenergo (ODEN: SELL), Prykarpatoblenergo (PREN: HOLD), Lvivoblenergo (LVON: U/R), Chernihivoblenergo (CHEON: SELL), Sumyoblenergo (SOEN: N/R) and Poltavaoblenergo (POON: SELL) until the Cabinet of Ministers approves the state privatization program. Earlier, President Yushchenko ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to finalize the privatization program by April 6, 2008. The SPF predicated its intent on the fact that the aforementioned companies were recognized by the Antimonopoly Committee as monopolies in their respective industries, and by a resolution of the National Security and Defense Council can only be privatized after the adoption of the state program on privatization. Andriy Gostik: We believe that the SPF’s announcement is just the head of the SPF, Valentina Semenyuk-Samsonenko rending the air and is hardly a real threat to the planned privatizations of Ukraine’s largest state-owned assets. Semenyuk-Samsonenko is commonly viewed as an opponent of the privatizations and a political adversary of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. On the other hand, both the President and the Cabinet of Ministers are ardent supporters of prompt privatization, and this January Ukrtelecom, the Odesa Portside Plant, Turboatom and the Oblenergos were approved by the government for sale in 2008. On another occasion, at the sitting of the National Security and Defense Council in February, the President severely criticized the SPF for its inefficiency in privatization and mismanagement of state-owned assets. The Cabinet of Ministers has made several attempts to sack Semenyuk-Samsonenko, and a proposal for her dismissal is currently before the Verkhovna Rada.