SPF To Announce Dates For UTEL, Odesa Portside, KSTL Sales February 21

The State Property Fund (SPF) announced yesterday that it would publish the dates for sales of stakes in several companies including Ukrtelecom (UTEL: HOLD), the Odesa Portside Fertilizer Plant, and Mittal Steel Kryvy Rig (KSTL: HOLD) on February 21. Additionally, the SPF said it will put up a 7.82% stake in the coal mining company Pavlogradugol on a local stock exchange on Febuary 28, and announce a tender for the sale of a 25% stake in the state insurance company Oranta on March 28.  Nick Piazza: The SPF wants to sell 10% stakes in both UTEL and Odesa Portside and another 0.34% stake in KSTL as part of its effort to try to meet the USD 2 bln in revenues from privatization the 2007 Budget calls for. However, the President has said in order to make sure that UTEL is competitive, it is necessary to sell a larger stake. The SPF’s plans require the approval of the government and we expect to see more wrangling between Yushchenko and the government before the sale goes through. However, it looks like the SPF is getting off to a better start in terms of going forward with privatizations than it did last year. In addition to these names, the SPF has plans to privatize several companies from the coal and energy sector along with Luhansktepolovoz (LTPL: HOLD) – we’ll keep our fingers crossed.