Ukrainian Property Fund fires UMCC Titanium CEO after audit

MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Ukraine's State Property Fund (SPF), which controls UMCC Titanium, has dismissed the acting CEO of the titanium raw materials producer, Vladislav Itkin.

"This decision was made on the basis of a thorough internal financial and economic audit of the company recently carried out by the fund," Ukrainian media reported citing an SPF's statement on its website.

The fund did not provide details about the reasons for Itkin's dismissal, but said its "team is working closely with law enforcement agencies regarding the results of UMCC Titanium's work."

UMCC Titanium began actual operations in August 2014, when the Ukrainian government decided to give it control over the assets of the Volnogorsky Mining and Metallurgical Plant in Dnipropetrovsk region and the Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant in Zhitomir region. These enterprises were previously leased by a company controlled by businessman Dmitry Firtash.

In August 2016, the Ukrainian government put UMCC Titanium on the list of companies slated for privatization, but the company's transfer to private ownership was postponed many times, with tenders repeatedly called off.

UMCC Titanium was a major global producer of titanium raw materials and previously shipped its products to more than 30 countries.