UCL secures regulatory approval to buy 100% of Vanino Port
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) has given the green light for billionaire Vladimir Lisin's UCL Holding to acquire 100% of shares in OJSC Vanino Commercial Seaport, the regulator said in a statement.
However, a new auction for the sale of the state's 55% stake (73.33% of common shares) in the port has not been scheduled yet.
Oleg Deripaska's En+ group, which already owns a 28.1% stake (21.6% of votes) in Vanino Seaport through Soleggiato Investments, earlier also showed interest in the state's stake.
The first auction for the state stake in the port was held in May 2011. It was won by LLC Seltekhstroi, a little-known company owned by Ivan Mikoyan, the grandson of Soviet statesman Anastas Mikoyan. The company bid 10.8 billion rubles for the stake, which was 10.6 times more than the starting price. But Seltekhstroi never paid the Federal Property Agency, confirming the suspicions of other bidders that the company had only intended to disrupt the sale. Seltekhstroi delayed the port's privatization on behalf of management, which thus retained operational control, the bidders suspected.
Vanino Commercial Seaport is the largest stevedoring company at the Vanino port.
UCL Holding includes more than 40 transport assets in Russia, including railroad operators, ports in Northwest and Southern Russia, the Volga, Northwest and Western shipping lines, as well as a number of other shipping, shipbuilding and logistics assets.
The group's stevedoring assets are combined in the sub-holding UCL Port, which includes OJSC St. Petersburg Seaport, CJSC St. Petersburg Container Terminal and LLC Universal Loading Complex in Northwest Russia; and the Tuapse and Taganrog seaports on the southern part of the country. The stevedoring companies have combined covered and open-air area of about 700,000 square meters, and combined berth length of about 10 km.