The Country Has No Money

The authorities sell Gomselmash, Coral and PromLinks under special conditions.

It is decided to sell the landmark industrial enterprises in Belarus to improve the financial situation. This year, the state put up for sale 13 companies, 3 of which are in Homel, writes Silnye Novosti.

The "privatization list" includes the famous Gomselmash, once booming for the whole Soviet Union Coral and PromLinks established in 1996 based on special design and technological bureau of Coral software. Silnye Novosti learned the terms for privatization.

It should be noted it is not the first time when Gomselmash is added to this list. Moreover, the governor is personally concerned about its fate. Last summer, during his business trip to Vetkovski District, Aliaksandr Lukashenka instructed the government to work out a development strategy for this enterprise: "Come together and consider. Next year no one should negatively talk about Gomselmash," he said. They did not come up with anything.

In the fall, the dictator visited Kazakhstan. Before the visit, he reported that "we offered Kazakhstanis to consider entering into the share capital of Gomselmash". According to him, President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev is already interested in the project. However, after the return of the Belarusian ruler from Kazakhstan, this topic was no longer raised.

Earlier companies from Russia and China asked the price of the company but it never came to the deal. That is why Gomselmash was publicly put up for auction once again in the hope to find a privatizer and investor in one person. However, the terms are not attractive.

At present, the state owns 100% of Gomselmash. However, it is ready to sell only 49.9%. That is, the main owner will still have control. At the same time, the first requirement says that the sale of shares to a strategic investor will be carried out "on the terms of investment project implementation in the society". A company "which occupies a leading position in the world ranking of agricultural machinery manufacturers" should be an investor.

That's not the end. The volume of investments into the fixed capital within the framework of the joint investment project should be not less than 500 million dollars. A potential partner of the state is obliged to preserve the main type of activity and production profile, to ensure the growth of production and sales volumes with the use of a joint distribution network, as well as to expand sales markets. The icing on the cake is that the stock buyer of the JSC must ensure profitable work of Gomselmash, "starting from the year following the year when the winner of the contest meets the condition regarding investments". The seller assumes that "pending favourable offers from an investor, it may be decided to sell up to 75% of shares".

A potential purchaser must also cover all the debts of the company. As of early 2019, these debts amounted to hundreds of millions of rubles.

The owner intends to get rid of Coral (the government's 100% stake) and PromLinks (97.22%). If there are any buyers who agree to bear other expenses in addition to the stock price.

The winner of the Coral tender must "invest the amount equivalent to at least $1 million at the rate of the National Bank within six months with the date when the share purchase and transfer agreement is concluded. This money shall be spent on the modernization and technical re-equipment of the company".

He is obliged to pay wages to its employees at an average monthly rate "not lower than that established in the Homel region". And to provide the company with profitable work "starting from the year following the year when the winner of the contest meets the condition regarding investments".

Similar conditions are set for a potential future owner of PromLinks. The only difference is that he must contribute at least $400.000 to the company's charter capital.

By the way, Coral was put up for sale in 2017. And things are still where they started...