KYIV

Ukraine plans a major privatisation campaign in the coming months, with projections of up to $450 million to be raised for state coffers – four times the amount generated by selloffs last year, the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Highlights of the selloff programme include titanium producer United Mining and Chemical Company with facilities in central Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions, with a starting price of $138 million in August, the Bilshovyk plant in Kyiv, starting at $50 million in October and the President Hotel in the centre of the capital, starting at $12 million in November.

“Plans for privatisation this year, in 2021, call for four times the budget revenue compared to last year” Kirill Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, told an economic conference. He put total projected revenues from selloffs at 12 million hryvnias, or a little less than $450 million.

The Bilshovyk site – west of Kyiv city centre – could attract some $500 million in residential and office construction, said Serhiy Tsivkach, Executive Director of UkraineInvest, the government’s investment promotion arm.

In December, two small Black Sea ports are to be sold off — Belhorod-Dnister and Ust-Dunaisk. The State Property Fund, responsible for sell-offs, announced plans for the privatisation next year of Centrenergo, a conglomerate making up one of Ukraine’s largest power generating companies in March and the Odesa Port Plant chemical producer in April.

Large-scale privatisation is seen as a key element in trying to root out corruption and reduce the outsize influence of business magnates – or oligarchs on political and economic activity.

Zelensky has introduced to parliament a bill intended to limit the sway of such magnates on political parties and bar them from taking part in privatisations. But it is uncertain how parliament will deal with the legislation.

Selloffs in the early post-Soviet period were widely viewed as rigged events intended to benefit the interests of businessmen close to the authorities. In perhaps the most celebrated case, President Viktor Yushchenko ordered a new selloff in 2005 of the Kryvorizhstal steel mill – and the sale to Arcelor Mittal raised $5.6 billion for state coffers.

The State Property Fund has undergone major changes in the past year as part of efforts to make the privatisation process more efficient and transparent.