Ukraine cancels privatisation tender on titanium and zirconium miner

Australia United Mining

27/08/2021 15:37

KYIV, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine has cancelled the
privatisation auction for the sale of Europe's largest titanium
and zirconium miner, United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC),
due to the lack of participants, the state property fund said on
Friday.
    The fund said in June the auction was due to take place on
Aug. 31 and the starting price for 100% of UMCC had been set at
3.7 billion hryvnias (about $136 million).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2O428Y
    Local media have said the timetable for the deal just proved
too tight and the fund said it would push back the auction to
give potential investors more time.
    "Postponing the auction will allow potential bidders to
finalize documents and re-submit bid," the fund said in a
statement.
    The deal was meant to become the first successful
privatisation auction of a large state-owned enterprise since a
2014 uprising led to pro-Western leadership in Ukraine.
    In 2016, Ukraine failed to sell state fertiliser group
Odessa Portside Plant (OPP) because of a lack of bids.
    UMCC is among the top 10 global miners of titanium and
zirconium ores and its share of the global market was 2.3% for
ilmenite, 6.2% for rutile and 1.4% for zircon in 2020, according
to Ukrainian officials.
    UMCC provides raw materials which have a wide range of uses
including steelmaking, glassmaking and traditional ceramics,
with titanium also used as an important alloying agent.
    Ukraine aims to raise about 12 billion hryvnias by selling
state assets in 2021 to partially finance the state budget
deficit, which was approved at 5.5% of gross domestic product.

 (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((pavel.polityuk@tr.com; +380 44 2449150; Reuters Messaging:
pavel.polityuk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))