Belarus puts industry assets on sale, but not for pennies
Appraisal for this country’s “family jewels” comes after the Belarus’s Ministry of Economy has developed a plan of measures to pull the country from the looming economic crisis.
Under the plan, the government is ready to sell the state’s share in Belarus’s major industrial giants, but not as cheap as Kommersant might think.
“If someone wants to buy the Belarusian enterprises for pennies, it will not happen this way,” Belarus Prime Minister, Siargej Sidorski made it clear. Belshina alone costs over $1 billion, he said.
The European Radio for Belarus has asked Yury Shaucou, a Belarusian political commentator and the director of the Minsk-based Center for European Studies, to share his view on how our family jewels should be appraised.
“The refinery in Mozyr has 42 percent of foreign investments, around $1 billion. The refinery in Navapolack has even a greater capacity. I would estimate it to be worth over $1 billion. In brief, we could talk about dozens of billion of dollars,” he said.
Why has Kommersant given such a low value to our enterprises? Perhaps, Russia is deliberately reducing the real value so that to buy the plants out afterwards? This is something hard to believe in as the reputation of Belarus in the field of privatization has been seriously soured.
As far as back in 2001, Lukashenka was set to sell the shares of Naftan, Polimir and the Hrodna-based Azoth petrochemical giants to Russian companies. But nobody would eventually receive the promised. Instead, the Russian oil traders were allowed to process more oil at the Belarusian refineries in exchange for the waiving of export duties.
Yury Shaucou suggests that other countries, not Russia, are likely to privatize the Belarusian enterprises.
“Most likely, it will be the Chinese corporations that are offering over $1 billion of investments in a variety of projects this year. Besides, the Arab capital, worth of several hundreds million of dollars, will be part of the deal, too. Possibly, Iran will also participate. I doubt that the assets will be sold to the Russians,“ Shaucou told the European Radio for Belarus.
Anyway whoever buys for whatever price, the Belarusian state is to remain in control of the industries, according to Slanislau Bagdankievic, the former chairman of the Belarus’s Central Bank.
“I think that many investors would not want to buy a Belarusian enterprise, if the control packet of shares is not on sale. Without the controlling shares, this enterprise will be controlled by the Belarusian authorities anyway.
Moreover, Belarus has the so called “golden share” rule. Even if the government owns 5 or 10 percent of assets, it still can introduce this “golden share” and run a company the way it wants.
Investors would normally agree to buy even a smaller part of shares at the highly efficient enterprises only,” Bagdankievic suggests.
Economist Leanid Zaika believes that Kommersant has run late with its estimations. “The Russians are deliberately lobbying for low prices in order to demonstrate the insignificant value of those enterprises. The amounts like $70 million could be offered 10 years ago, but not now,” he said.
Political commentator Yury Shaucou even refuses to comment. “Frankly speaking, it is such an absurd figure that I wouldn’t even bother to discuss it,” he said.
Stanislau Bagdankievic says angrily: “This is nonsense. What does $70 million mean?”
The Belarus government seems to stand firm. It demands that the share of foreign investments in the country’s capital assets be increased up to 10 percent. But it is still unclear who is going to bid for this cake piece.
Photo by photo.bymedia.net
