Posted on 01/27/2005 1:31:39 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
A Kiev court on Thursday froze shares in Ukraine's largest steel mill, which was sold last year to a group that included former President Leonid Kuchma's son-in-law in one of the country's most-criticized privatization deals.
The court ordered that the consortium that purchased the Krivoryzhstal steel mill "should not release, sell or deposit shares" pending the end of court proceedings, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Kuchma's son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk, coal and steel tycoon Rinat Akhmetov and others make up the consortium that bought the mill for US$800 million (euro665 million).
Court officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ruling came amid widespread expectations that Ukraine's new government, led by the Prime Minister-designate Yulia Tymoshenko, will re-examine the country's murky post-Soviet business deals.
The court's decision followed a motion by Irina Nazarova, a lawyer who represents a parliamentary commission on privatization. Last year, the commission filed a lawsuit to annul the Krivoryzhstal privatization, arguing that the deal prevented small shareholders and citizens from buying the company's stakes.
Other bidders, including Russia's OAO Severstal and a consortium of LNM Group and United States Steel Corp., also cried foul, claiming they had made higher offers.
Krivoryzhstal is one of world's most profitable steel mills, producing about 20 percent of Ukraine's steel. In 2003, it had a pretax profit of about US$300 million (euro250 million).
Tymoshenko, a key ally of President Viktor Yushchenko, has said that Krivoryzhstal is at the top of her agenda as the new government re-examines privatizations deals.
"We don't think that Krivoryzhstal and other such businesses were privatized," Tymoshenko told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "What happened was a complete theft of state property."
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