Ukraine’s State Property Fund (SPFU) plans to sell a second seaport after completing the sale of the Ust-Dauna seaport last month, marking the first-ever seaport privatization through the SPFU’s electronic auction system.
In January, the SPFU sold the Ust-Dauna seaport to the Elixir Ukraine company, according to a Yahoo News report, citing The New Voice of Ukraine.
Elixir Ukraine Co.’s owner, Valeriy Vikhrenko, is the founder and owner of the WIMEXIM group of companies. Since 2016, Elixir Ukraine has been an official representative of Elixir Zorka (Serbia) and has been engaged in the sale of complex fertilizers in Ukraine, according to the report.
Ust-Dauna seaport is located in the southern part of the Zhebriyan Bay of the Black Sea and faces the Ochakiv mouth of the Danube River, but was little used before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .
According to the report, the port since April 1 of last year already has handled the export of 153,000 mt of grain and 58,300 mt of imported consumer goods.
Ust-Dauna seaport has a projected throughput capacity of 4.1 million mt/y and has great potential for the development of Ukrainian food exports but requires investments, according to SPFU Chair Rustem Umerov, as cited by the report.
Eight participants competed to buy the port, with the starting price for the asset increasing by more than three times from UAH60 million (approximately $1.6 million at current exchange rates), according to the report, citing the SPFU.
The SPFU now is also planning to sell the Bilhorod-Dniester Sea trade port by the end of winter, Ukraine Business News reported. The port, which is located on the banks of the Dniester Estuary, has been used by Ukraine since April 2022 as a logistics center for the Danube ports, according to the report.