Ukraine’s Lithuanian Economy Minister Selling Off State Assets to the West – Surprise

‘Amongst the first things the Lithuanian-born fund manager and investment banker Aivaras Abromavicius did following his appointment at the end of 2014 as Ukraine’s new economy minister was to order a stock take of all the state-owned enterprises under his control.

“We have 3,000 state-owned enterprises, of which only 1,833 are operational, but there is a high concentration of assets: the top 100 control 92% of the revenues, but a little over half are losing money,” Abromavicius told bne IntelliNews in an exclusive interview on the eve of the EBRD annual meeting on May14-15. “These companies have a dividend yield of about 0.1%. They are not sharing cash flows with their main shareholders – the state. For years they have been managed in the interests of some private owners, not the state. We need to change that.”’

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