12 April 2008
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) has appraised the state-owned 0.5% stake of Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rig (KSTL: BUY) at USD 3.8 mln. The state currently owns a total of 1.74% in the company. Neither the date of the sale nor the exchange have been specified by the SPFU. Concorde Capital: The price determined by the appraisers is just par value and has no resemblance to current market value. We believe the final tender price will exceed the initial price nearly four-fold. The SPFU’s intent to sell only a portion of the state’s stake at a stock exchange indicates, in our view, that the SPFU is very uncertain as to how much can be earned from the sale of the state’s stake. Once the market values this block, we expect the SPFU to appraise the remaining 1.24% stake based on the sale price for the 0.5% stake.