OREANDA-NEWS. September 2, 2010. The starting price for the government’s 92.79% stake in Ukrtelecom (UX: UTLM UK) should be no less than UAH 12 bln (UAH 0.69 per share), State Property Fund head Oleksandr Ryabchenko said yesterday at a press conference. Ryabchenko said it is unlikely to announce the privatization auction in September, as planned, due to the fact that the state has not yet been transferred the stake to the SPF from the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications. Ryabchenko also said there are five likely bidders: two from Russia, two from Ukraine and one foreign-bank consortium.

Concorde Capital: we think the government will delay Ukrtelecom’s privatization until next year. However, privatization will not be put on hold for long, since the government realizes that a significant portion of Ukrtelecom’s value is decaying with time. Ukrtelecom holds the only 3G license in Ukraine and has ADSL access to more than 10 mln households. Both these segment could boost revenues with a new owner in place.