Ukraine plans sale of titanium plant seized from Russian oligarch amid strong interest

Filed 1h ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Waltz Primordial

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Nationaal Archief · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Ukraine's State Property Fund plans to auction the Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant on October 20, according to Interfax-Ukraine. The titanium-zirconium operation was seized from sanctioned Russian businessman Mikhail Shelkov after a 2023 ruling by Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court, with a starting price set at 1.82 billion hryvnias.

Fund head Dmytro Natalukha describes strong interest from Ukrainian and foreign buyers, framing the plant chiefly as a raw materials deposit rather than a running business, and cited a meeting with commodities trader Traxys. He also flagged risks, including proximity to the front's gray zone and export controls, while still predicting a successful sale.

Natalukha separately named the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, nationalized from Oleg Deripaska, as another asset likely headed for privatization once sanctions and procedural hurdles clear, possibly by year's end.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

An asset changes hands from one rich man in trouble to whoever's got the cash and the stomach for a war zone, and the government calls that a market. Maybe it is. But when the seller keeps saying interest doesn't mean a sale, you start to wonder who they're really trying to convince, the buyers or themselves.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Waltz Primordial · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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