OREANDA-NEWS. Ukrainian government's economic policy committee approved a draft resolution on October 16 approving sale of 37.86% of shares of Ukrtelecom < UTEL UZ USD0.219 Accumulate > through ADRs. Still, the State Property Fund (SPF), which is responsible for this operation indicated indirectly via the media that they are not ready for this transaction and the SPF couldn't even confirm that they have already selected an international investment bank as an advisor, Millennium Capital, a financial services provider, disclosed.

In spring, the Yanukovich cabinet had first announced plans to sell  37.86% in UTEL through ADRs, probably on London Stock Exchange, between  August and December 2007. 5% should be sold on domestic stock  exchanges and the control stake would be privatized afterwards. Even back then, the time schedule for the ADRs looked ambitious and the privatization of 5% had almost completely failed. It's therefore  completely unrealistic that the Yanukovych cabinet can even start with the privatization in the time left it has, the experts believe. "We see, therefore, that this announcement is politically motivated without any chance for success. We expect that the would-be new Tymoshenko cabinet will completely cancel this unsuccessful privatization roadmap and organize....privatization tender for the control stake as Tymoshenko did for Mittal Steel Krivoy Rog. President Viktor Yushchenko has stressed several times the need for such a privatization," the experts conclude.