NEQSOL Holding, the owner of Ukraine's second-largest mobile operator "VF Ukraine" (TM "Vodafone Ukraine"), has fully paid 3.94 billion UAH to the state budget of Ukraine for the acquisition of the state-owned shares of the Public Joint Stock Company "United Mining and Chemical Company" (UMCC, Kyiv) at a privatization auction.
"The auction winner has completely settled the payment for the state package of shares of the largest titanium raw material producer in the country. Additionally, the new owner has committed to significant investment obligations: to invest no less than 400 million UAH in production modernization, which will facilitate the further development of the enterprise," the State Property Fund (SPF) stated on Monday.
In turn, the regional director of NEQSOL Holding, Vladimir Lavrenchuk, noted that the international group of companies, operating in 11 countries, is taking the legislative steps necessary to complete the privatization process.
"As a strategic investor, we have already begun negotiations with several specialized companies from the USA, Australia, the UK, and Canada to attract the best global expertise for developing a new strategy for UMCC. This strategy includes fulfilling privatization commitments, deep modernization, and expansion into global markets," he emphasized.
The SPF highlighted that the process of large-scale privatization continues, and on December 19, 2024, 100% of the state share of the nationalized construction materials producer LLC "AeroK" will be auctioned online in the electronic trading system "Prozorro.Sales" with a starting price of 965.3 million UAH.
The SPF reminded that taking into account the sale of the "Ukraine" hotel earlier this autumn, the total revenue from large-scale privatization this year has already exceeded 6.4 billion UAH.
As reported, the LLC "Cemin Ukraine," controlled by NEQSOL Holding, was the only bidder for the purchase of UMCC at the auction scheduled for October 9: with an initial price of 3 billion 899.358 million UAH, it offered 3 billion 938 million 351.581 thousand UAH.
The founder and owner of NEQSOL Holding is Azerbaijani citizen Nasib Gasanova. As noted on the holding's website, in the 1990s, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, he began providing brokerage services, initially focusing on chemical supplies while expanding his business in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and other former Soviet countries, and later on supplying equipment for the oil and gas industry in the region.
Subsequently, Gasanova used the accumulated capital to invest in the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan, founding his own company in the industry. The holding's enterprises in the energy sector are consolidated within two groups: Nobel Oil E&P (UK) Limited (trading as Nobel Upstream), which engages in exploration and production in the UK, USA, and Azerbaijan, and Nobel Energy, providing diversified integrated services for international oil and gas operators in the Caspian region and beyond.
The holding entered the telecommunications sector in 2005 by acquiring Bakcell, the first Azerbaijani telecommunications company, and in 2019 NEQSOL Holding purchased "Vodafone Ukraine." The holding also invests in various startups.
In the late 2000s, the group expanded its business portfolio, making its mark in the construction services and materials market, engaging in the production of cement and related materials. The company Norm, established in 2013, is the largest cement producer in the South Caucasus. Before the war, NEQSOL Holding was close to acquiring the largest Ukrainian cement producer "Ivano-Frankivsk Cement," but later backed out of the deal.
Currently, the group employs over 12,000 people across 11 countries, including the UK, USA, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the UAE. The company headquarters are located in Amsterdam, Baku, and Kyiv.
UMCC commenced actual operations in August 2014 when the Ukrainian government decided to transfer the property complexes of the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (VGMP, Dnipropetrovsk region) and the Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (IGPP, Zhytomyr region) under its management. Previously, these plants were leased to structures associated with Dmitry Firtash.
In August 2016, the government included UMCC in the list of companies scheduled for privatization in 2017. Its deadlines were postponed several times, most recently due to COVID and quarantine measures.
Before the war, in the second half of 2021, the SPF attempted to auction UMCC three times with a starting price of 3.7 billion UAH. The last auction, scheduled for December 20, did not take place as only two bids were submitted, one of which was rejected due to non-compliance with the law. At that time, one participant was insufficient for the sale. This followed a statement from the privatization advisor "BDO Corporate Finance" indicating that international companies were unprepared to participate in the auction due to a lack of guarantees for the protection of large investments from the Cabinet of Ministers. At that time, the SPF and the advisor appealed to the government for such guarantees, but to no avail.
In 2023, UMCC's revenue fell by 15.4% to 1 billion 946.68 million UAH, while its net loss amounted to 481.35 million UAH, compared to a net profit of 13.37 million UAH the previous year. According to YouControl data, from January to September of this year, the company increased its revenue by 88.8% to 2 billion 295.5 million UAH, achieving a net profit of 89.1 million UAH compared to a net loss of 274.2 million UAH in the same period last year.