Since 1991 we have assisted both private and government-financed clients with numerous privatization-related projects, including but not limited to Commerzbank, Credit Commercial de France, ROBERT FLEMING & CO., and a Western European electricity company. In all, we have participated in privatization projects in the fields of soda production, cement production, cardboard manufacturing, electricity, among others.
In 1993, Frishberg & Partners was involved in both large and small-scale privatization in Ukraine. Initially, we assisted a consortium headed by Sinclair Roche & Temperley, involving the corporatization, privatization and restructuring of UkrRichFlot (The Ukrainian River Fleet), a project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Our efforts in this regard included restructuring the enterprise as a holding company with numerous sub-units.
Later, the EBRD asked our firm to create both a privatization plan and a corporate profile for the “Selmi” factory, a 7,000-employee, military-conversion enterprise with five production profiles, ranging from water pistols and cigarette lighters to electron microscopes and high-resolution optics. A French investor was interested in two of these production profiles and wanted to know what this state-owned enterprise held in terms of assets and liabilities, an approximate valuation, as well as a recommended methodology for privatization.
The UK Know-How Fund selected our firm, along with Ernst & Young and Food & Agriculture International, to both privatize and restructure 10% of the wholesale and retail distribution of fruits and vegetables in the Kiev Region. As part of our engagement, we were required to interview the management at six state-run wholesale distribution warehouses, as well as the directors of over ninety retail produce shops. Ultimately, four distribution warehouses and forty retail shops were included in the project. Of these, four warehouses and thirty five shops were transferred from state to private ownership.
Frishberg & Partners also played an active part in the development of mass privatization in Ukraine. We were asked by Price Waterhouse to advise on reconciliation of USAID’s vision of mass-scale privatization with the prevalent legislation. Our work with Price Waterhouse resulted in the introduction and distribution of Ukrainian privatization certificates.