Privatization of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi MTP: the winner of the auction refused from the port, although he lost UAH 18 million

The winning company of one of the auctions for the privatization of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi port explained why it refused the assets.

“Ukrdoninvest” company, which won one of the auctions for the privatization of a state-owned enterprise, refused to sign the agreement due to disagreements with the State Property Fund, “Liga Business” reports.

The owner of “Ukrdoninvest” Vitaliy Kropachev said that the company during correspondence with the State Property Fund asked for certain documents, in particular, an audit and other technical issues, but did not receive an answer.

“It was easier for us to lose 18 million (guarantee contribution of the auction winner, – ed.) than to risk losing a much larger amount,” Kropachev explained.

According to him, the biggest problem was the lack of certain documents. The fund side believes that during wartime, during privatization, these documents are not needed. In turn, Ukrdoninvest is convinced that both a technical and a financial audit should have been conducted during the sale.

Also, the winner of the auction did not receive a permit from the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU), which “due to this agreement and its conduct, simply did not have time to provide it.”

Kropachev added that attempts to settle the issue by law, so that the company would not be fined, turned out to be useless.

“Therefore, relatively speaking, 18 million against the background of possible fines from the turnover of a group of companies from AMCU is a smaller figure,” he noted.

The process of privatization of the Ust-Dunaisk port is also being delayed indefinitely. This decision is explained by the errors of the State Property Fund when preparing it for sale.

It turned out that State Property Fund publicly declared the sale of the entire property complex, but in fact put up for sale only part of the port. Due to the fact that the Fund “sold” the enterprise undivided, the object cannot be registered to a new owner.

Already in August, an auction for the privatization of the single property complex of SE “Bilhorod-Dniestrovskyi Sea Trade Port” will be held.

We will remind you that this is already the fifth attempt of the State Property Fund to privatize the Bilhorod-Dniestrovskyi port. The first auction was supposed to take place on March 3, but no one applied for participation. The second auction took place on March 13, but the winner (“Ukrdoninvest”) did not pay for the lot.

The third auction on June 6 was not held due to the lack of participants. The fourth, on June 14, did not take place for the same reason.

The port needs investment and modernization to start full operation. This is possible only thanks to the involvement of a private investor.

Previously, USM reported that the workforce of SE “BDMTP” may remain without salaries due to the company’s conflict with tax officials. The tax service of the Odesa region forcibly debited almost 850,000 UAH from the company’s accounts, which were intended for the salaries of port employees.

It is important that the new owner of the port, who will be chosen during the privatization procedure, must fully repay the debts from salaries and taxes within 6 months after the purchase of the object. Therefore, the tax service has practically no risks that after privatization the new owner of the port will not pay the debts to the budget.