Metalist Sports Complex LLC, the sole bidder that offered UAH 674.522 million, including VAT, for the municipally owned Metalist Regional Sports Complex, has been declared the winner of a tender to sell the stadium.
An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that members of the tender commission at Kharkiv Regional Council had unanimously voted for a respective decision.
They also proposed that Head of Kharkiv Regional Council Serhiy Chernov submit the results of the tender for approval at the council's session, "given the importance of the financial component for the socio-economic development of the region."
The head of the department for municipal property at Kharkiv Regional Council, Anatoliy Polyvanny, said that the company's authorized capital is UAH 700 million. Metalist Sports Complex LLC was registered in May this year in Kharkov at 6 Plekhanivska Street (at the same address as the Metalist Stadium).
The price offered by the company exceeded the initial price by UAH 83.84.
As reported, in December 2012, the Gas Ukraine group of companies (VETEK now, after it underwent rebranding) reached an agreement on the acquisition of FC Metalist Kharkiv from businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky. Serhiy Kurchenko, who is considered to be a major stockholder in VETEK, became the new president of FC Metalist. He spoke of his readiness to buy Kharkiv municipal authorities' share of Metalist stadium. He said the acquisition might cost him the equivalent of $70 million.
Kharkiv City Mayor Hennadiy Kernes said that the money to be received from the sale of the stadium would remain in the local budget and would be spent on finishing the building of the city's 30th subway station, and the reconstruction of the city concert hall and historical museum.
On June 27, 2013, Kharkiv Regional Council put the Metalist sport complex onto the list of joint ownership facilities of territorial rural and municipal communities that are to be sold via tenders.
The initial price, including VAT, was UAH 674,521,916.16.
