"Almost all enterprises know who is going to buy them in the privatization auctions. If some other bidder wins by chance,
the State Property Fund announces the auction invalid," declared Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Privatization Oleksandr Riabchenko.
The privatization process has recently been speeded up, understandably, because the SPF is trying to sell as much as possible before the new Parliament is elected. It is possible that newly elected deputies will start with checking the legality of documents, signed during Volodymyr Lanovy's chairmanship. Absence of transparency at privatization contests also increases the chances of parliamentary checks on SPF actions. In February the SPF obliged the contest's participants to deposit 10% of the overall investment amount to the account at the Finance and Credit Bank, which serves the SPF. However, this figure is a commercial secret until the contest is launched. Now experts of the SPF or the bank can easily calculate the investment amount and find out the potential winner. This is done to cut the contestants list, Riabchenko thinks. The best example to the situation is the privatization of the Zaporizhzhia Iron Alloys Plant, where the winner, the Sigma Investment Fund, did not receive anything.
Contest participants learned, when privatizing the Frunze Scientific Production Association in Sumy that in addition to the general conditions there were others (for potential winners only). According to the regulation issued by the SPF, trust companies are allowed to participate in the contest, but they cannot win. Is it, like athletes say, not whether you win or lose but how you play the game?
There is also some magic in privatization of Nikopol Ferrous Alloys Plant. The SPF decided to sell a 27.5% share package, 15% for privatization certificates and 12.5% for money.
Events become more and more interesting, since the SPF still does not have a chairman (which means it can get away with almost everything) and the privatization of strategic enterprises began only recently.






