OREANDA-NEWS.  On 30 January 2008  Michael Bleyzer, the head and founder of the investment company SigmaBleyzer, announced that it would open in 2008 a sixth fund worth USD 1bn. The fund is directed toward investing in companies worth more than USD 100mn and will be active on international markets. Mr. Bleyzer also said that the company is considering taking part in the privatization of Ukrtelecom. But he stressed that the decisive factor in this case would be the conditions of the privatization. "We won't be able to say how much we'll be ready to pay for Ukrtelecom: we have not yet conducted a valuation, as we don't know what conditions for the investor will be set," he said.

UTEL’s market capitalization is currently USD 4.1bn and the 67.79% stake that will be privatized has therefore currently a value of USD 2.8bn. Taking into consideration that more and more potential bidders are appearing we expect that the price for UTEL will be significantly higher. Therefore SigmaBlazer has to be seen as a potential large portfolio investor and not as a strategic investor. On the one hand SigmaBleyzer has a track recortd in the area of telecommunications (Voliya Cable) and retail. On the other hand SigmaBleyzer is so far known as a private equity company influencing its investments. But this would not be the case for UTEL. We therefore question the seriousness of this announcement and cannot exclude that the true motivation behind is marketing.