Fondul Proprietatea of Ukraine has no intention to privatize the Krivoi Rog unit as the government in Kiev has to reach agreement with the other countries, especially Romania who wants USD billion for its shares.

Mr Aleksander Riabcenko head of the Fond quoted by UkrInform said that until we reach an agreement in relation with the other countries it is impossible to advance towards privatization. The expectations of the Romanian party are very high and it is unlikely that Romania backs down.

The official said that these expectations were materialized in a sum of one billion dollars. They re numbered all those pellets in dollars and there was a nice number. They are already used to the idea they will get this sum from Ukraine. It is hard to reach an agreement at this point. The construction of the mining unit Krivoi Rog started in 1983 in the Soviet Union, with Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Germany, Czekoslovakia, Hungary and Romania.

After the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Ukraine received 56.4% of the shares, Romania 28% and Slovakia 15.6% and the construction of the unit was stopped in 1990, the workings being finalized 70%. Romania invested in Krivoi Rog before 1989 almost USD 800 million. Over the last years, the authorities in Bucharest announced several times they will give up their share in the Ukraine unit.

Mr Adriean Videanu former minister of economy stated in May last year that the state could sell their participation in Krivoi Rog to the group ArcelorMittal with whom he started technical discussions on this issue. Investment in the construction of the unit was by 1990 USD 1.65 billion out of USD 2.4 billion.

(Sourced from www.actmedia.eu)