State Property Fund resumes attempts to sell shares of Odesa's Orion plant

The regional office of the State Property Fund in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions has once again put up for auction a controlling stake in PJSC Machine-Building Production Association Orion.

This time, according to the Prozorro.Sale system, the auction is scheduled for September 5 with a starting price of UAH 4 million 385.5 thousand.

The state owns 2 million 883 thousand 281 shares of PJSC Machine-Building Production Association Orion, which is a controlling stake - 50% of the authorized capital + 1 share - and has been trying to sell them for several years.

Thus, on February 24, 2023, the auction for the sale of a controlling stake in PJSC Machine-Building Production Association Orion was canceled 14 days after the regular announcement.

Prior to that, the Regional Office of the State Property Fund in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions once again put up a controlling stake in PJSC Machine-Building Production Association Orion for auction on February 10.

The shares were put up for sale without a discount, i.e. with a starting price as of December 2022 of UAH 6 million 854 thousand 705.

It should be noted that this stake had been almost sold twice by that time. In October 2022, the securities were put up for auction with a starting price of UAH 7 million 420 thousand 784.

At that time, nine bidders competed in the auction, and the price increased almost 30 times to 220 million as a result of the bidding.

However, the winner of the auction, Kyiv-based Ristence Invest, did not pay for the lot and the results of the auction had to be canceled.

The shares were put up for sale again with a starting price of UAH 3 million 710 thousand 392, but then this auction was canceled and the shares were put up for sale with a starting price of UAH 6 million 854 thousand 705.

There were six participants instead of nine.

Three of them took part in the first auction: Kurortnyi Limited Liability Company, Ilmer Limited Liability Company, and Transinvestmanagement LLC. At that time, Kurortnyi LLC offered UAH 191 million for these shares and took second place.

According to the results of the second auction, the LLC was supposed to save 111 million, because according to the results of the new auction, it won with an offer of 80 million 1 hryvnia.

Thus, compared to the previous auction held on October 12, the shares fell by UAH 120 million.

However, even this winner did not pay for the shares, so the results of the auction had to be canceled again and a new auction announced at a discount.

The object of privatization is a controlling stake in Orion. This is not a property complex, but the right to manage the company.