The privatisation of Ukrtelecom has once again been postponed and the auction will not take place this year, Telegeography reports quoting local media.
The State Property Fund (SPF) initially planned to sell the state’s 92.8% stake by the end of…
The privatisation of Ukrtelecom has once again been postponed and the auction will not take place this year, Telegeography reports quoting local media.
The State Property Fund (SPF) initially planned to sell the state’s 92.8% stake by the end of September at a starting price of Hr12bn (US$1.5bn). But ministers reportedly support the idea of waiting for the group’s market capitalisation to increase before launching a sale.
A communications ministry source was quoted saying that the implementation of a universal service fund is to be decided before privatisation. Ukrtelecom currently bears the entire cost of providing unprofitable ‘social’ services such as rural telephony but the authorities are considering setting up a universal service fund to be backed by contributions from private telecoms operators to help remedy the situation.
The authorities have reportedly hired Millennium Capital as adviser for the privatisation.
The privatisation of the telecoms incumbent has been expected for many years, but the political environment has so far prevented any transaction from taking place.
Ukrtelecom was the only operator to receive a 3G licence in 2005, doing so without an auction, which caused anger among privately-owned mobile operators Astelit, MTS Ukraine, URS and Kyivstar
It is widely believed that the Ukrainian authorities are reluctant to grant other mobile operators a 3G licence because Ukrtelecom received its licence with a view to dressing it up for privatisation
