Ukraine postpones “big privatization” to 4Q18

Vitaliy Trubarov, the head of Ukraine’s State Property
Fund, told journalists on May 10 that he expects the privatization of 26 large
Ukrainian companies will take place in October-December 2018, Interfax-Ukraine
reported the same day. He said that a lot of time is needed to select financial
advisers and do all the other preparatory work.

The same day, Ukraine’s Cabinet approved the list of
26 enterprises with state stakes that can be sold this year. The list includes
power generation company Centrenergo (CEEN UK); power engineering firm
Turboatom (TATM UK); chemical enterprises Odesa Portside, Sumykhimprom and
Oriana; five power distribution companies; four heat and power plants; and some
other assets in the mining, machinery and infrastructure sectors, Interfax
reported. The exact list of the companies has not been published by the
Cabinet, so far.

Recall, earlier the fund planned the privatization of
Centrenergo, Sumykhimprom, Zaporizhia Aluminum and Odesa Portside in May-June 2018.

Alexander Paraschiy: Our understanding from the news flow around the privatization list is
that the State Property Fund is going to postpone the sale of all assets
(including those planned for May-June) for late 2018. This is clearly not the
best time to offer Ukrainian assets for sale, as it will be very close to
presidential elections scheduled for March. Therefore, we doubt Ukraine will be
able to sell its large assets this year.