Interfax
January 12

Uzbekistan's state property committee is offering foreign investors state stock holdings in two chemicals and one cement plant.

A committee administration source told Interfax that 49% of chemicals plant Elektrokhimprom (Tashkent region), starting price $15.68 million, and 57.7% of Dzhizakplastmassa (Dzhizak region), starting price $3.13 million, will be on the auction block. So will 25% of the stock in cement company Akhangarantsement (Tashkent region), starting price $4.5 million. Bids for the three will be accepted until March 10.

This is the second time Akhangarantsement is being offered, since an auction last September for the 25% stake attracted no bidders.

Elektrokhimprom produces around 35 different chemical products, including liquefied technical ammonia, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate and carbamide. The government will retain a 51% stake in the enterprise. Britain's Maxwell Stamp PLC is the financial consultant for the company's privatization

Dzhizakplastmassa makes polyethylene film and polymer pipe, producing up to 30,000 tonnes a year. The government will hold onto 25%, the company workforce 8.9% and small stockholders 8.4%, aside from the potential foreign investor. The financial consultant here is the Russian audit-consult firm BDO UniconRuf.

Akhangarantsement, Uzbekistan's second largest cement-maker, can turn out 1.736 tonnes of the product annually. The government will retain 25%, the company workforce 24.4%. Switzerland's Holderbank Group owns 25.6% of the stock. The financial consultant for this outfit's privatization is European Privatization & Investment Corporation of Austria.

The Akhangarantsement stock sale is part of a program for privatizing major Uzbek enterprises with the support of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The IBRD extended Uzbekistan a $28 million credit to this end back in 1998.

The official exchange rate on January 8 was 980.18 sum/$1.

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