This year, they will try to put the OPP up for sale again, — Deputy Minister of Economy

The Odesa Port Plant (OPP) remains a key object of large-scale privatization in 2026.

This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine Daria Marchak in an interview with Інтерфакс-Україна.Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, after the unsuccessful auction last year, for success this year it is necessary to determine the terms of sale more correctly and in a more sophisticated manner, since the OPP remains a complex asset.

“The company has debts, there is an old debt to the owner of Group DF Dmytro Firtash. So it is obvious that we need to globally rethink how we approach the sale of this object. However, in any case, we plan to put this object up for sale this year and hope that we will be able to find buyers,” said Daria Marchak.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that the unsuccessful auction for the sale of the Odesa Port Plant on November 25 last year gave an important signal that under the existing conditions and the starting price of UAH 4.49 billion, investors are not ready to enter.

“We need changes to the legislation that will unblock the price reduction for large privatization objects during the resale. And here I really count on the support of the people’s deputies,” she emphasized.

Thus, the Ministry of Economy will propose to the parliament to approve the following sequence of sales of such objects: first – at the book value or the value established by the valuation method; if the object is not sold, then the second auction is held at a lower starting price, but goes to increase the price; if the second attempt is also unsuccessful, then the third auction goes to decrease the price.

“This allows us to find the true market value and a real investor. Unfortunately, for a large-scale privatization, changes were made at the beginning of a full-scale invasion and the second and third stages were actually stopped,” explained Daria Marchak.

She added that if such changes are not adopted, the Ministry of Economy and the State Property Fund will look for other ways, possibly through the restructuring of the enterprise’s debts.

It will be recalled, that Kernel refused to participate in the privatization of Odesa Port Plant after checking the asset and assessing the risks.