The State Enterprise “Zhytomyr Distillery” has found a new owner — on April 11, the State Property Fund of Ukraine held an open auction, as a result of which the facility was sold for over UAH 165 million, including value-added tax. The auction took place through the electronic system “Prozorro.Sales”.

The starting price of the lot was UAH 101.1 million, and the auction itself was announced on March 28. Two bidders competed for the right to purchase the plant: LLC “Khliborob-s” and LLC “SPK-invest 2021”. During the auction, the price increased by over 36%, which indicates a high interest of the participants in purchasing the asset.

As a result, the winner of the auction was the limited liability company “SPK-invest 2021”, which made the highest bid — UAH 137,500,100. Interestingly, this offer exceeded the competitor’s bid by only UAH 100. Taking into account the value-added tax of UAH 27.5 million, the total amount of the transaction reached UAH 165,000,120.

LLC “SPK-invest 2021” was registered on March 19, 2021. The company’s main activity is gas trading through local pipelines. The ultimate beneficiaries of the company are Vasyl and Yevhen Astion. The competitor in the auction was LLC “Khliborob-s”, which specializes in growing grains, legumes and oilseeds, and its owners are Serhiy and Volodymyr Rybinski.

According to the terms of the auction, “SPK-Invest 2021” has 20 days to pay in full for the object. After that, the Zhytomyr Distillery will officially become the property of the winning company. This acquisition could mark a new stage in the development of the enterprise, which has a long history in the Ukrainian market.

This sale is part of a broader strategy of privatization of state property, which is being implemented by the Ukrainian government in order to attract investment, effectively manage assets and support the economy in wartime conditions.