Aircraft Manufacturers To Be Offered To Private Investors

The State Privatization Program for 2012-2014 in Ukraine stipulates the decrease of the share of the state-owned sector in Ukrainian economy until it reaches 25-30 percent of the GDP. Ukrainian law on the respective Program has recently gone into effect and the estimated income from the sale of national companies to domestic and foreign investors over three years is estimated at $5 to $7.5 billion (U.S.), according to a news release issued by World News Ukraine.

Two well-known aircraft producing companies ... Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company and aircraft manufacturing company Antonov ASTC ... are among entities the Ukrainian government will make available to investors in 2012.

The State Privatization Program for 2012-2014 offers to lower the price of the enterprises for sale to the demand price level. The company's stock will also be split as a way to encourage smaller investors to become shareholders. Ukraine will also decrease existing limitations for privatization of the state-owned companies that significantly curb privatization scale. In addition, 5 to 10 percent shares of strategically important companies and sites will be split in small portions and sold on the national stock market. This will allow Ukrainians to participate in privatization process as well as contribute to the development of Ukrainian stock market.

The process of privatization ... selling off state commercial and other assets in Ukraine ... started in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  The Ukrainian government admits that the privatization process faced a number of irregularities, with many companies sold under non-transparent schemes for a price much lower than their market value. One of the first transparent privatizations took place in 2005 when India's Mittal Steel bought Ukraine's Kryvorizhstal, one of the largest steel plants in the world.

In 2011 Ukraine's largest state-owned telecommunications operator Ukrtelecom was privatized. 92.79 percent of the telecommunications giant was sold for approximately USD 1.3 billion.

FMI: www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/publish/article%3Fart_id=72980&cat_id=32589