SPF Gearing Up For Odessa Portside Sale, Asks Bidders For Suggestions

The State Property Fund (SPF) recently announced that it was beginning preparations for the privatization of a 99.54% stake in the Odessa Portside Plant (OPP). The privatization is scheduled for June of this year, however in comments to the press, the Head of the SPF, Valentina Semenyuk, said that the company will be sold in September 2007. The SPF says it welcomes suggestions from the potential bidders regarding the conditions of the upcoming auction. Earlier the head of SPF said she expects the plant to be sold for at least USD 400 mln.  The Odessa Portside Plant is the second largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in Ukraine and the largest producer of urea. The company is located in the port city of Yuzhny, near Odessa and is connected to the Tolliatti (Russia)-Yuzhny ammonia pipeline. Vladimir Nesterenko: It’s worth mentioning that the Cabinet and the President finally agreed that the company won’t be restructured and will be sold together with its ammonia transshipment assets. Highly profitable transshipment services, which we estimate to bring in around USD 20 mln in net revenues, definitely will add value to OPP. However, the legal status of OPP’s transshipment assets is not clear – in 2005 Ministry of Industrial Policy ordered the company to pass those assets to the state-owned Ukrhimtransammiak, the operator of the Ukrainian section of the Tolliatti-Yuzhy ammonia pipeline.