DTEK Oil & Gas bids for Odesaoblenergo minority stake

DTEK Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Ukraine’s energy holding
DTEK controlled by Rinat Akhmetov, made an offer to the minority shareholders
in power DisCo Odesaoblenergo (ODEN UK) to purchase their stake at UAH 3.13 per
share, according to the DisCos’ July 2 announcement. The shareholders will have
ten days to accept the bid since the date of receiving it.

DTEK completed a deal to purchase a 68.3% stake in
Odesaoblenergo (as well as 94.0% of the shares in power DisCo Kyivoblenergo)
from a company with Russian roots, VS Energy, in May 2019.

The second-biggest shareholder in Odesaoblenergo is
Ukraine’s State Property Fund, which owns a 25% stake. Based on the bid, the
state’s stake is priced at UAH 476 mln. The Fund had tried to sell its stake in
a privatization auction in August 2017, offering it at a starting price of UAH
631 mln, but drew no bids then. Another
attempt to sell the stake was announced in 2018, when the starting price was set at UAH 149 mln. However,
the fund cancelled the tender in March 2018
on its own initiative.

Alexander Paraschiy: The
announcement implies that DTEK purchased its 68.3% stake from VS Energy for UAH
1.3 bln (about USD 48 mln) this year. It is unlikely that the State Property
Fund will sell its stake at the bid price, given that it will have too little
time to accept it. Otherwise, the Fund would gain on the deal, which offers a
220% premium to the starting price of a cancelled March 2018 tender.