Appellate court confirms validity of 45% ZAEN stake purchase by DTEK

The Kyiv Appellate Economic Court ruled on Oct. 21 to affirm an April 21 lower court ruling that declared valid the privatization of a 45.1% stake in power GenCo Zakhidenergo in January 2012. The respective court ruling was cited by the lviv.nashigroshi.org news site on Oct. 30. Biznes-Invest, a company that is allegedly controlled by tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, was trying to question the validity of the 2012 privatization in which the holding DTEK (DTEKUA), controlled by tycoon Rinat Akhmetov, was recognized the winner.

At the privatization tender in late 2011, DTEK was the only bidder for the Zakhidenergo stake. No other company participated after the government offered strict qualifying requirements for potential tender participants. According to single-bidder rules, the 45.1% stake was evaluated by an independent appraiser at UAH 1.93 bln (about USD 115 per kW of installed capacity) and sold at that price to DTEK in January 2012.

Recall, a day earlier, the Ukrainian media distributed another ruling of the same court that recognized as valid DTEK’s other purchase in the energy sector: a 25% stake in GenCo Dniproenergo (DNEN UK) in March 2012.

Alexander Paraschiy: As we expected, the privatizations won by Akhmetov during the Yanukovych presidency are very hard to question, as, formally, they were implemented in full accordance with Ukrainian legislation. That’s only confirmed by this latest ruling, and it’s broadly neutral for DTEK. For this reason, and because the current government is also planning to convene a massive privatization (and any reprivatization will harm this process), there is no political will to cancel any privatization tender, regardless of how questionable it might have been. However, this does not mean the government’s attitude towards DTEK has changed – we still expect the power brokers will continue to pressure the holding to force it divest some of its electricity assets.

Источник: Конкорд Капитал