Chinese commodity exchange acquires Ukrainian Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The Ukrainian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (UBRD) was sold in an auction to Bohai Commodity Exchange, the largest commodity exchange in China. The bidding took place on Wednesday, November 30, in the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU). The Chinese exchange was the only bidder, and the state-owned holding of 99.9945 percent of UBRD’s shares was sold at the starting price of UAH 82.827 million (EUR 3.038 million), the SPFU reported.
The key requirement for the investor that bought UBRD is the capital replenishment of UAH 2.5 million to UAH 120 million ($97,656 and $4,687,500 respectively at 1 USD = 25.6 UAH) in order to satisfy NBU regulations. The State Property Fund has expressed hope that the National Bank of Ukraine would provide the necessary permission to allowing the Chinese investor to replenish the capital of the bank "with the purpose of developing its activities in Ukraine" as soon as possible.
UBRD was previously up for auction in April 2016, but there were no bidders. After that, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said that if UBRD was not re-privatized at the second auction, it would be liquidated.
According to the SPFU, the Chinese company Bohai Commodity Exchange Co., Ltd. (BOCE) is the largest commodity exchange in China with an annual turnover of 1 trillion USD. The company was founded in 2009 by private Chinese citizens, several state-owned companies, as well as the municipality of Tianjin State.