Large privatization in Ukraine is stalling: another round of auctions found no buyers

Two large privatization auctions scheduled for October 20 failed to take place due to a lack of participants. The auctions were for the sale of asset pools of LLC "Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant" and LLC "Motordetal-Konotop", according to ЛігаБізнес.

The most expensive lot was the Demurinsky GZK, confiscated in 2023 from Russian oligarch Mikhail Shelkov, with a starting price of UAH 1.82 billion.

The state planned to sell 100% of the company's authorized capital, as well as claims against the plant under agreements with Cyprus-based Limpieza Limited and the Russian corporation "VSMPO-Avisma", confiscated by a decision of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) dated September 30, 2024.

Motordetal-Konotop was listed for UAH 415.5 million.

The pool consisted of a 100% stake, forfeited to the state by a HACC decision dated August 10, 2023, and claims under contracts with Russian JSC "Kostroma Auto Components Plant" (subsequently transferred to Cyprus-based Lepedan Investments Limited), confiscated by a HACC decision dated September 5, 2025.

The failures with Demurinsky GZK and Motordetal continued a series of large privatization failures over the past week.

On October 13, the auction for the state-owned stake in Sumykhimprom with a starting price of UAH 1.0045 billion failed, and on October 19, the privatization auction for Odesa Portside Plant with a starting price of UAH 4.308 billion did not take place due to a lack of participants.

In total, for the four assets – OPZ, Sumykhimprom, DemGZK, and Motordetal-Konotop – the state expected to raise at least UAH 7.55 billion, but received nothing.

• The latest large privatization auction as of today took place in summer 2025, when Afina Group of Ruslan Shostak and Valeriy Kiptik bought Vinnytsiapobutkhim for UAH 608 million.
• In early June 2026, Head of the State Property Fund Dmytro Natalukha published a public plan for preparing priority assets for sale in 2026 worth a total of UAH 29.4 billion.