Cabinet Orders Stakes in Six Oblenergos to be Passed to the SPF

According the Cabinet of Ministers’ Decree #1105, the state’s stakes of 25%-27% in six Oblenergos should be excluded from the charter fund of the National Energy Company and transferred to the State Property Fund “for their privatization.” The Oblenergos on the privatization block are Odesaoblenergo (ODEN: N/R), Prykarpatoblenergo (PREN: BUY), Lvivoblenergo (LVON: HOLD), Chernihivoblenergo (CHEON: SELL), Sumyoblenergo (SOEN: N/R) and Poltavaoblenergo (POON: SELL). Alexander Paraschiy: It looks like the Governmentagreed to privatize stakes in the six Oblenergos even without approval of the Conception on Privatization. The Cabinet and SPF have less than three weeks to complete the privatizations to get a political boost ahead of the parliamentary elections on September 30 (refer to our news on Oblenergo privatization of August 31). We believe that if privatization does not occur in the next 18 days, it will be postponed until at least 2008.