At the end of May, the court resumed litigation on the eight-year old lawsuit from Investytsiyno-Metalurhiynyi Soyuz (IMS, Investment Steelworks Union) against the State Property Fund. IMS whose major stakeholders were Akhmetov and Pinchuk seeks cancellation of the State Property Fund’s order 289 dated February 15, 2005 whereby a number of the State Property Fund’s orders linked to the first privatization of KryvorizhStal issued before mid-February 2005 were cancelled. That order was one of the first steps in re-privatization of KryvorizhStal.
Founded by Rinat Akhmetov’s SKM and Viktor Pinchuk’s Interpipe, ISM acquired over 93% of Kryvorizhstal shares for UAH 2.3bn in a tender on June 14, 2004. However, it lost the plant next year after the Cabinet of Ministers cancelled the privatization on February 12, 2005, and the State Property Fund did on February 15.
On April 22, 2005, Kyiv Commercial Court cancelled the decision on the tender results and the sales and purchase agreement for KryvorizhStal. IMS failed to challenge this in higher courts. On June 11, the government acknowledged the SPA invalid.
On October 24, 2005, Mittal Steel Germany GmbH became the new owner of KryvorizhStal through the tender. On October 28, it signed the SPA with the State Property Fund. As a result, Ukraine received UAH 24.4bn for 93.2%.
In 2005, the IMS tried to return KryvorizhStal through the European Court of Human Rights. In its appeal, it complained of violation of its right to a fair trial and of the fact that Ukrainian courts were not independent.
