Page 42 - UKRRptNov18

State-owned natural gas monopolist N aftogaz also said that it hopes to tap the international capital markets this year , Naftogaz Board Chairman Andriy Kobolev said on October 19. "We hope [to issue eurobonds] this year, if the Finance Ministry has success with the IMF," he said at the same discussion organized by the Novoye Vremia newspaper. Kobolev said that by the end of the year Naftogaz plans to repay a large loan to one large bank. According to him, it can be refinanced, but the issue of eurobonds may be cheaper, and it is not associated with collateral. In the middle of September, Kobolev announced plans for Naftogaz to issue eurobonds worth $500mn - $1bn in October 2018 to finance the development of the company.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the starting price of a 78.289% stake in state-owned utility PJSC Centrenergo at UAH5.985bn . An advisor to privatize PJSC Centrenergo – Ernst & Young z Corporate Finance sp.k (the Polish division of EY), proposed that the starting price of a 78.3% stake in the electricity generating company is set at $225.479mn. The draft resolution also proposes to approve the obligation to take into account the recommendations of the environmental audit conducted on May 16, 2018 by order of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, and also to send dividends accrued on the stake of shares purchased during the privatization owned by the state before its sale. In addition to the standard requirements for the potential buyer in the form of timely payment of taxes and fees, preventing arrears of wages, creating fuel reserves for the full operation of the TPP, maintaining the equipment through repairs, there is a condition for the possible operation of the company in the European network of transmission system operators are provided electricity (ENTSO-E).
Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the Batkivschyna Party, has said that if the Ukrainian authorities conduct a shadow privatization of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS), the new Ukrainian president will return it to the state after elections. "The new president of Ukraine will return the GTS to the state, as was the case with [renationalized steel mill] Kryvorizhstal. I want to warn everyone who invests money or will take part in this large-scale corruption. Nobody will return to anybody the money that will be taken from offshore companies for the shadow privatization of the system," the party's press service quoted her as saying in her speech from the parliamentary rostrum on Tuesday. Tymoshenko accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of fraud with the Ukrainian pipeline system.
The liquidation of Naftogaz Ukrainy in the next six years will impede recovery of funds from Russia's Gazprom, Naftogaz Chief Commercial Officer Yuriy Vitrenko has said. "New arbitration against Gazprom with our claims exceeding $12bn, taking into account our experience, will end no earlier than in two or three years. We already know that Gazprom avoids implementing the decision of international arbitration and in such conditions forcible recovery will take at least another year. That is, already four years. And to take into account contesting in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Sweden, it's not four years, but six years," he wrote on Facebook. Vitrenko noted that, thus, the liquidation of Naftogaz after the next presidential election is impossible.
The starting auction price for the state’s 78% of shares in Centrenergo will be $212mn, the Cabinet of Ministers decided on Wednesday. Concentrated in central and eastern Ukraine, Centrenergo saw its electricity
42 UKRAINE Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com