According to the Prozorro.Sales system, the State Property Fund put up the nationalized Zaporozhye Aluminum Plant for re-privatization with a starting price of only UAH 152 million.
In 2001, the first privatization of JSC "ZALK" took place. Then the State Property Fund sold 68.01% of the plant's shares to AvtoVAZ-Invest. Under the terms of the agreement, the investor had to pay UAH 380 million for the shares, as well as pay off the plant’s debts in the amount of $75 million to Ukreximbank. However, AvtoVAZ-Invest, as well as Oleg Deripaska’s Cypriot Velbay Holdings, to which the shares were re-registered in 2007, have not sorted out the debt.
Oleg Deripaska also acquired another 29.5% of the plant's shares on the open market, as a result of which the Russian concentrated control over 97.5% of the shares of ZALK.
And although in 2012 Ukraine through the court terminated the purchase and sale agreement for a stake in ZALK in the amount of 68.01%, Deripaska remained with 29.54% of the shares registered in the Cyprus Velbay Holdings.
After the start of a full-scale invasion, Ukraine recovered these shares through the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court as part of sanctions against Deripaska, and they ended up in the State Property Fund in February 2024.
The Russian owners, who for 14 years “virtually plundered the enterprise and destroyed the unique production of primary aluminum,” earned money only by leasing property, selling assets and inventories.
