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loan tranches of €0.5bn each, with a duration of up to 15 years. This is the fourth such macro-assistance deal given to Ukraine by the EU and it makes Ukraine the biggest recipient of EU aid form any country is not an EU member. Ukraine’s MinFin expects the first tranche will be provided this year and the second in the spring, conditional on the successful review of Ukraine’s implementation of the program’s conditions.
Ukraine’s state-owned gas monopolist Naftogaz asked Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to sell a 49% stake in the operator of the nation's gas transit system (GTS) from the government's 100% total share. Specifically, the company suggests that Groysman place the question of the possible sale before a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, the Ukrainian News agency reported on September 10 Naftogaz estimated the 49% stake can be sold for $7bn to a recognised international investor, and such an investment will serve as a guarantee for preserving future revenue from gas transit services, after the current gas transit contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom expires in end-2019. Alexander Paraschiy at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital believes that a possible sale of a stake in the GTS operator will secure high FDI inflows and improve the chances that Ukraine’s export proceeds from gas transit services won’t plummet after 2020.
The Ukrainian government has scheduled the privatisation of the state-owned stake in power generating company Centrenergo for late November, one of the most attractive of the country’s utilities schedule to go under the gavel, according to acting head of the State Property Fund (SPF) Vitaliy Trubarov.
"The cabinet approved a schedule for preparing for privatisation of Centrenergo," the official wrote on his Facebook page on September 6. "According to the schedule, the tender for the sale of Centrenergo will be held late November. The state will be able to receive funds from the sale in December."
In July, the SPF greenlighted a new and ambitious privatisation plan that would see 22 large companies sold off. According to the list , Kyiv is going to offer potential investors, specifically, five power supply companies, Centrenergo, Odesa Port Plant (OPP), Turboatom, Zaporizhia Titanium and Magnesium Combine, United Mining-Chemical Company and Sumykhimprom.
However, Ukrainian experts hardly believe that Kyiv will be able to sell any significant state-owned assets on the eve of, and during, the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections campaigns slated for next year.
According to Trubarov, before the tender, the fund should prepare recommendations on changing the starting price and terms of sale of the stake. "Then they have to be approved by the tender commission and the cabinet, and in the middle of October it will be announced that the tender will be held and bids will be received from potential buyers," he added, Interfax news agency reported on September 6.
In 2017, the Ukrainian authorities obtained UAH3.244bn ($123mn) from the privatisation of state-owned assets. Kyiv restarted its privatisation drive in August, when the SPF sold blocking stakes in several power companies to System Capital Management (SCM) Group controlled by Ukraine's richest
36 UKRAINE Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com