Mittal Steel group, the world''s biggest steel producer, on Monday bought Ukraine''s main iron-and-steel plant, Krivorizhstal, for $4.79bn (4.02bn euros).
The tender was an electoral pledge of president Victor Yushchenko, who wanted to prove that Ukraine is open and transparent for foreign investors, after the plant had been privatised once and renationalised. The price offered by Mittal Steel for the Ukrainian plant is five times the price paid by the son-in-law of Leonid Kucima in 2004. Yushchencko labelled the privatisation of that year as "theft", with the group of firms close to the former president taking over Krivorizhstal for $800m, a price inferior to the other bids. Mittal Steel is also the owner of Sidex Galati in Romania, which it acquired in 2004 for $500m. The actual offer stood at just $70m, the rest being assumed debts. The privatisation of Krivorizhal has been finalised in the context where, as in Romania, many privatisation processes are suspected of involving illegal practices.
In other news, the National Anti-Corruption Department (PNA) announced it has begun to scrutinise the privatisation of aluminium producer Alro Slatina, after receiving a complaint in early October saying that illegal practices were allegedly employed during the process by which the plant was transferred into private hands. At the same time, Romania''s Court of Accounts in the wake of some investigations, identified a series of major crimes in the privatisation of Rafo Onesti and Aro Campulung, these being privatised despite an absence of restructuring processes, which generated a low interest from potential bidders.
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