OREANDA-NEWS. December 12, 2007. On December 26, the SPFU (State Property Fund of Ukraine) is to announce about the auction on Sumykhimprom privatization, UFC-Capital reports. After hard thinking the State Property Fund of Ukraine at last decided to sell one of the largest chemical producers in Ukraine -- Sumykhimprom. On December 26, 2007, the SPFU is to announce about the open auction on sale of a 100% interest (excluding privileged sale) in Sumykhimprom OJSC, one of the leading chemical companies of Ukraine. According to the official publication of the SPFU, it is envisaged by the order #1862  issued by the SPFU on November 27, 2007, -- On amendments into the monthly timetable for entities and holdings stakes privatization in July-December 2007.

To all appearances, the Cabinet of Ministers has completely abandoned the idea to establish the so-called “titanium corporation”, which had to include the state-owned titanium assets: Sumykhimprom, Irshansk Mining and Volnogorsk Mining leased by DF Group, which is controlled by Dmitriy Firtash, the state-owned Zaporozhie Titanium-Magnesium and the state-owned stake in Crimea Titanium.  
However, it is not excluded that the new Cabinet headed by Yulia Timoshenko, who was an active advocate of the state-owned titanium corporation establishment, will return to this idea. Should the privatization of Sumykhimprom take place, the key pretenders to the company acquisition will be DF Group owned by Dmitriy Firtash and Renova corporation, owned by Victor Vekselberg. At that, both of them possess the largest deposits of apatite-ilmenite ore: Valki-Ilmenite, Samotkanskoe, Mezhrechenskoe deposit (DF Group) and Fedorovskoe deposit (Renova). Victor Vekselberg long since takes interest in the Ukrainian titanium market and more than once put forward an idea to establish a vertically-integrated titanium corporation.

Sumykhimprom OJSC specializes in production of titanium dioxide, sulphuric acid, yellow and red ferrioxide pigments, compound fertilizers and coagulants for water purification. The company is controlled by the Ministry for Industrial Policy and the state owns 100% interest in the company’s statutory capital. In 2006, its revenues amounted to UAH 621.149 mn ($130 mn) and net profit – UAH 1.264 mn ($0.25 mn).