Specialists of an emergency recovery team inspect and shut down a damaged pipeline near the state-owned Ocean Plaza shopping mall in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14, 2024. (Yurii Stefanyak / Global Images Ukraine / Getty Images)
Ukraine Business Roundup
Ukraine's government wants to sell thousands of state-owned assets that are overwhelmingly unprofitable, inefficient, or nonoperational — sometimes all three. But it's facing a problem. Low prices aren’t enough to attract the foreign investors Ukraine wants most, particularly those from Europe.As Ukraine positions itself as an investment opportunity rather than a charity case to foreign partners, the country's State Property Fund, the government body overseeing privatization, is advertising state-owned businesses as an easy and secure path for foreign investment."It is probably one of the safest ways to enter the Ukrainian market," Dmytro Natalukha, the chairman of the fund, told the Kyiv Independent."The whole process is very straightforward. You take part in an online auction on the Prozorro platform (Ukraine's transparent public procurement website), meaning that there cannot be any infringements whatsoever. You have the possibility to access all the data beforehand, to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and even do a site visit," he added.Dmytro Natalukha, chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, attends a press conference on the sidelines of the Ukraine 30. Economy Without Oligarchs Forum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 14, 2021. (Hennadii Minchenko / Ukrinform / Future Publishing / Getty Images)The fund currently lists 18 large-scale projects and 157 small-scale projects on its website, with around 1,200 projects in the pipeline from a pool of more than 3,000 state assets in total. The auctions have attracted local investors, with 168 small-scale sales bringing in over 1 billion hryvnia ($22.3 million) in the first half of 2026.But in late June, Natalukha stood on stage at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk, saying that no European investors were interested in bidding for state assets. This is despite there being a plethora of privatization opportunities in Ukraine, from an ammonia plant in Odesa to a bakery in Chernivtsi, he told the audience.People involved say deep-rooted problems are turning off foreign investors. Poor communication by the government about viable projects and ongoing war risks are major roadblocks, as well as staffing issues at the fund, particularly with English-speaking employees, a person with direct knowledge of Ukraine’s privatization program told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
