Ukraine privatizes seaport for 1st time, receives $5.5 mln
MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Ukraine's State Property Fund has sold a seaport for the first time, at an online privatization auction on Tuesday.
The Ust-Dunaisk Commercial Seaport was put up for a starting price of 60.01 million hryvni; the final bid was 3.3 times that, at 201 million hryvni (about $5.5 million at the current rate), the Ukrainian media reported, citing the Prozorro.Sales system (the Ukrainian government's online selling platform).
There were eight bidders. The winner was Elixir Ukraine. It has 20 business days to pay the price of the lot; the sale contract will be signed once the money has arrived.
The Ust Dunaisk port's assets include a port in Vilkovo (Odessa region), the Kiliya port station in the eponymous town and base which services lighter carriers on the Shabash island (on the Danube, in Odessa region's Kiliya district). Cargo handling is carried out at the Kiliya port station. Berth depths: 3 meters (passport), 1.5 meter (actual).
According to the seaport's website, it was founded in 1977, and was the first regular freight route connecting the Danube basin countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. It was launched in December 1978.
The website also says that Kiliya port is situated on the 47th kilometer of Danube. Its waters include a water area of the river's Kiliya estuary between the 42nd and 54th kilometer (from the left bank to the nominal line of national border, which passes through the fairway). The port station can process all types of dry cargo. The cargo berth is 150 meters long.
"This is the first port privatized in the Prozorro.Sales system. A landmark event (. . .) Competition is more than twice as high as the average in privatization auctions, and the multifold price increase is proof that businesses are ready to compete for such assets," Prozorro's Director Alexei Sobolev was quoted in the Fund's statement as saying.
Elixir Ukraine, according to website, is a wholesale chemicals distributor. Since 2016, it has been the official representative of Elixir Zorka, the Serbian manufacturer of complex mineral fertilizers.
As of January 17, the official exchange rate is 36.57 hryvni per $1.