Odessa Portside Plant to be reorganized into public joint-stock company
OJSC Odessa Portside Plant (Odessa region) is planning to reorganize itself into a public joint-stock company. According to the company, the issue of its reorganization will be considered on April 19.
At a meeting, in particular, the company’s shareholders intend to resolve the issue of transferring shares from documentary to non-documentary form and re-electing management. They also plan to hear the issue of the prior approval of a significant transaction whose cost will be over 50% of the cost of company assets according to the latest annual financial report. As reported, the law on joint-stock companies foresees the presence in Ukraine of only two types of joint-stock companies – private and public. By April 29, 2011, all companies should bring their statutes in line with the law’s standards. Odessa Portside Plant saw its net loss in 2010 growing by 35.7 times compared to 2009, to UAH 87.169 million, while net income rose by 1.7 times, to UAH 3.514 billion.
Well dear readers, so reads the announcement on the Ukrainian Government website.
In the past few years there were serious mumblings that Libya would be very keen to acquire this asset should it be privatised.
The reorganisation will certainly make any future privisation easier and more transparent given the recent audits.
Odessa Portside has been the subject of privatisation rumour for at least 4 years now and despite its loss making is strategically a major asset. (Some things are more valuable than mere money).
Given that Libya is certainly a very unlikely welcome party in the current global situation when it comes to any privatisation, who would that leave?
Step forward Dmitry Firtash me-thinks! (It will sit very nicely amongst his recent chemical portfolio acquisitions of late and it is highly unlikely that there will be many serious players from the “West” that will want to take this on.)
Yulia Tymoshenko will be spitting feathers she didn’t privatise it when she had the chance if Mr Firtash buys it.
