Ukraine puts Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant up for sale for $3.7 mln
MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine's State Property Fund will hold an auction on August 6 to sell the state-owned 97.5458% stake in JSC Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant.
Ukrainian media reported, citing a State Property Fund statement, that 607,446,012 shares are up for auction. The auction will be held on the Prozorro.Sales electronic trading system with a starting price of almost UAH 151.9 million ($3.7 million at the current rate), with applications to bid at the auction accepted until August 5.
The plant has 1,497 items of real estate and infrastructure with a total area of 370,900 square meters on its balance sheet. The property also includes 291 units of vehicles and special equipment. The real estate is located on 25 registered land plots with a total area of 216 hectares.
As of May 31, 2023, some of the enterprise's real estate with an area of 6,756 square meters was leased under eight agreements, some of them until September 1, 2065.
The enterprise has debt, including overdue accounts payable of UAH 6.44 billion.
According to the auction terms, the new owner must settle wage arrears and debts to the budget within 18 months of the transfer of ownership.
The State Property Fund said in February that it had increased its stake in JSC Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant, in which it owned 68% of the shares, to 97.5%.
The State Property Fund has said it sold a 68% stake in the plant to Avtovaz-Invest at the beginning of 2001. Later, in 2006, Velbay Holdings Limited, controlled by Rusal became the new owner of this asset. Oleg Deripaska was the main beneficiary of Rusal at the time. Subsequently, the businessman's companies acquired another 29.5% stake in the plant. As a result, Deripaska gained control of 97.5% of the shares of Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant. However, in 2015, the Ukrainian authorities, as a result of litigation, returned a 68% stake to state ownership, transferring it to the State Property Fund. The remaining 29.5% stake was expropriated in February 2023 by the High Anti-Corruption Court following action brought by the Ukrainian Justice Ministry.
Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant used to be Ukraine's only producer of primary aluminum with capacity to smelt more than 100,000 tonnes of aluminum per year.
The enterprise has gradually scaled down operations, shutting its alumina division in March 2009, the electrolysis shop that produced primary aluminum in April 2011 and, finally, its foundry in July 2014.
The company's main sources of income are the lease of property and the sale of assets and inventories. The company is running at a loss.