They again want to sell Ukrtelecom, which was taken from Akhmetov, into private hands
The State Property Fund states that if the telecommunications company Ukrtelecom is returned to the state, it will be put up for sale again, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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This was announced by the acting chairman of the State Property Fund Vitaly Trubarov.
“The first and second instances supported the SPF’s claim from the point of view of investors’ failure to fulfill their obligations, that is, investments worth 450 million hryvnia were not made and a separate special communication line was not built,” Trubarov said.
“The cassation will be considered soon, and if it supports – and we believe it will support – the SPF’s attempts to return this asset to ownership, then we will move on to transferring the shares to the SPF,” he said.
Trubarov added that Ukrtelecom is expected to be re-sold, but the state may also decide to use it from an operational point of view.
As reported, on October 19, 2017, the Economic Court of Kiev, at the request of the State Property Fund, tore up the agreement for the purchase and sale of shares of the largest fixed-line operator Ukrtelecom, concluded in March 2011 following the results of a privatization competition, by the ESU company, which belongs to businessman Rinat Akhmetov, thereby returning the stake in Ukrtelecom to state ownership.
The State Property Fund reported that the ESU company did not fulfill its obligations to invest $450 million over 5 years in the development of the enterprise, which is why the fund initiated a lawsuit to terminate the purchase and sale agreement for Ukrtelecom shares.
According to the court decision, a penalty in the amount of 2,171 billion hryvnia should be collected from the accounts of ESU, accrued for improper execution of the purchase and sale agreement for a stake in Ukrtelecom.
The ESU company announced its intention to file a cassation appeal against the decision of the appellate court.
Let us recall that in May 2011, the State Property Fund sold 92,79% of Ukrtelecom shares to the Ukrainian subsidiary of the Austrian company EPIC - the ESU company - for 10,5 billion hryvnia. Then ESU resold this asset to Rinat Akhmetov's SCM group. The businessman became the owner of the company indirectly.
Ukrtelecom, which was taken from Akhmetov, is again being sold into private hands.