Sumykhimprom Failed for the Third Time to Sell for ₴1 billion at Auction

An online auction for the privatization of 99.99% of the shares in one of Ukraine’s largest chemical companies—Sumykhimprom—did not take place due to a lack of participants. The auction was scheduled for October 13, and the starting price for the state-owned stake was 1.005 billion UAH, excluding VAT.

Sumykhimprom is one of Ukraine’s largest chemical companies. The plant produces complex mineral fertilizers, titanium dioxide, sulfuric acid, and other inorganic chemical products.

The company is among the top three revenue generators for the city of Sumy and the region. In particular, the plant produces more than 30 brands of NPK fertilizers with varying nutrient ratios, designed for different soil and climatic conditions.

“Sumykhimprom” is one of the key assets in the large-scale privatization program and is managed by the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

This is not the first attempt to sell the state’s stake in the company. Previous auctions also failed to take place due to a lack of interested buyers.

Specifically, the first online auction, scheduled for June 11, 2025, did not take place. At that time, the starting price was set at 1.158 billion UAH.

The repeat auction, scheduled for January 13, 2026, also failed to take place. The starting price for the stake at that auction was 1.088 billion hryvnias.

Consequently, the auction scheduled for October 13 with a starting price of 1.005 billion hryvnias also ended without a result due to a lack of participants.

For over ten years, the company was managed by a group of companies affiliated with businessman Dmytro Firtash’s Group DF.

In November 2023, the Commercial Court of Sumy Oblast granted the motion filed by the State Property Fund of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice and closed the proceedings in the case regarding the bankruptcy and reorganization of “Sumykhimprom.”

Despite several attempts at privatization, the state’s stake in the company has not yet been sold at open online auctions.

This is evidenced by data in the ProZorro system.

Previously, an auction for the sale of the Gulliver multifunctional complex in Kyiv, with a starting price of 9.2 billion hryvnias, did not take place on the “ProZorro.Sales” platform due to a lack of potential buyers. By the time the deadline for submitting bids passed on the evening of September 30, not a single bid had been received.

The auction for the sale of the “Dnipro Arena” stadium and the former training facility of FC “Dnipro” was once again canceled. Both properties are owned by the state-owned PrivatBank.