President Freezes Privatization of Minority Stakes in Six Oblenergos

President Yushchenko issued a decree yesterday suspending the Cabinet’s directive to transfer 25%-27% stakes in six Oblenergos from the charger fund of the National Energy Company (NC ECU) to the State Property Fund for 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: As we wrote before, there is a small chance that privatization will happen in 2007. We do not see any reason for suspending the privatization of small stakes in Oblenergos, thus we expect the privatizations to occur after elections, in the beginning of 2008.