Oleksandr Slavskyi, the State Property Fund of Ukraine’s regional director for the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, has announced that the privatization auction of the state-owned Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Commercial Seaport has taken place, the CFTS portal reports.
"UAH 220.1 million was the highest offer for the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Commercial Seaport, plus VAT and repayment of debts," Slavskyi said.
According to him, the highest bidder was Ukrdoninvest LLC.
This was the second online privatization auction of a seaport in Ukraine. The first took place in January: the State Property Fund held the privatization auction of the Ust-Dunabe seaport. The price of the Ust-Dunabe seaport rose to UAH 201 million from the starting price of UAH 60 million during the auction, which was held on the ProZorro auction platform on 17 January.
Before that, the state only granted concessions and leases on ports.
According to Slavskyi, the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi seaport has facilities at three locations: the main facility on the shore of an estuary in the city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, a port station with access to the sea in Zatoka, and a recreation center in Zatoka.
The seaport currently operates only as a "dry port." It handled 272,000 tons of cargo in the first nine months of 2022 (270 tons more than it handled in the previous year). However, the seaport is loss-making. As of 30 September, its debts amounted to UAH 104 million, which must be repaid by the buyer.
As reported earlier, the privatization auction of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Commercial Seaport was planned for 3 March, but it did not take place. According to the Mykolaiv regional division of the State Property Fund, there were no bidders.
