Zaporizhzhia Aluminium Smelter (ZalK) JSC. Photo: State Property Fund of Ukraine
The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) has announced a second auction for the privatisation of shares in Zaporizhzhya Aluminium Smelter (Zalka) to be held on 7 November 2024. This was reported by the SPFU press service on its Facebook page.
The auction involves the sale of a state-owned stake of 97.5458% of the plant’s authorised capital, which is 607,446,012 shares. The starting price of the lot has been set at UAH 151.8 million, and the auction will be held on the Prozorro platform.
The State Property Fund recognises ZALK as a promising brownfield project. The main advantage of the plant is its large total area of real estate, which amounts to 1,497 registered units, as well as a land plot of 216.0856 hectares. This opens up opportunities for the new owner to both run the business and relocate it. The company is located in Zaporizhzhia, in close proximity to the national importance motorway H08 and the railway.
The company’s balance sheet includes 18 state-owned objects that were not included in the charter capital and remained in state ownership, including shelters, radio stations, engineering networks and roads.
According to the SPFU, in the first half of 2024, the company suffered a net loss of UAH 31.5 million. As of 30 June 2024, its overdue accounts payable exceeded UAH 6.7 billion, of which UAH 14.1 million were wage arrears.
Previous attempts to hold privatisation auctions for the sale of the state-owned stake in ZALK failed due to the lack of bidders. Nevertheless, the SPFU continues to make attempts to sell this asset.
As a reminder, from 29 October to 1 November 2024, the State Property Fund of Ukraine held 9 successful privatisation auctions, which brought UAH 112.7 million to the budget.
