OREANDA-NEWS. October 13, 2010. The Ukrainian government has set the starting selling price of 92.8 % stake in Ukrtelecom, the major fixed-line operator in Ukraine, at UAH 10.5bn, the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine announced Oct 12. The official publication will follow shortly.

Millennium Capital views this news as POSITIVE for UTLM. As has been expected earlier, the starting price is roughly on par with the current market cap. Moreover, the timing of the auction becomes clearer now since under the current legislation SPF is bound to hold the auction in 75 days following the official publication of the decision. The likely auction date will thus fall onto the winter holidays, which is definitely a disadvantage.