The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) plans to privatize the state-owned stake in public joint-stock company Odesa Port-Side Plant in spring 2018, the fund has said in a report.

The SPF is preparing for the tender now. The appraisal of the plant will be presented in November 2017.

"We held a tender to select appraisers. They are working now to finish the appraisal in the set terms. Taking into account the fact how important the enterprise is for the region and the country, the fund cannot afford delaying the transparent and effective privatization of the plant, thanks to which all problematic issues of its operation could have been solved," SPF Head Vitaliy Trubarov said.

As reported, Ukraine twice put the plant up for sale in 2016: first in July at the starting price of UAH 13.175 billion and then in December at the reduced price of UAH 5.16 billion. The privatization auctions failed to take place.