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The State Property Fund of Ukraine has made an offer to ESU, a Kyiv-based subsidiary company of the EPIC concern (Austria), to purchase 92.79% of the shares of Ukrtelecom, the largest telecommunication company in Ukraine, for UAH 10.575 billion. "The State Property Fund of Ukraine has completed the procedure of checking a report on appraisal of 92.79% of the shares of the Ukrtelecom open joint stock company provided by the limited liability company Consulting Company Ostriv and endorsed it as fully meeting the requirements of the normative base on appraisal of state property," reads the statement. The expert appraisal exceeds the starting price of the shareholding of Ukrtelecom by UAH 75 million. In compliance with the legislation the State Property Fund has applied to ESU as the only participant in a tender on sale of the shareholding of Ukrtelecom with the offer to purchase the shares at this price. Ostriv submitted its report on appraisal of the shareholding of Ukrtelecom on February 4, 2011. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, since ESU, a Kyiv-based subsidiary company of the EPIC concern (Austria), is the only one to bid in the tender for sale of 92.79% of Ukrtelecom, the State Property Fund had to apply the procedure of appraisal of the stake by independent appraisers.

The Ukrainian Exchange based in Kyiv has included series J bonds of the Ukrtelecom telecommunications company, into the second level of listing. The exchange announced this in a statement. "On January 25, 2011, Ukrainian Exchange PJSC included simple registered bonds of Ukrtelecom OJSC into second level of the exchange register," the statement reads. Ukrtelecom started placement of series J bonds on October 19, 2010. The company issued 125,000 of these bonds with the general nominal value of UAH 125 million. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Ukrtelecom finished 2009 with losses of UAH 456.4 million, having increased its net revenues by 3.39% or UAH 225.202 million to UAH 6,870.931 million, comparing with 2008.

The Ukrtelecom telecommunication company has sold its J Series bonds with the total face value of UAH 125 million. Ukrainian News learned this from a statement by the company, the wording of which was made available to the agency. According to the statement, the placement of bonds was finalized on 13 December 2010. As a result of the transaction the company has totally raised UAH 130.530 million. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Ukrtelecom started floatation of Series J and K bonds for UAH 275 million on October 19, 2010. In particular, the company issued 125,000 bonds of Series J and 150,000 bonds of Series K in the book-entry form of the nominal value UAH 1,000 each. The company plans to channel the funds raised through sale of the bonds to improving efficiency of the existing telecommunication system, building and upgrading the network infrastructure, including the third generation mobile communication (3G). The means will be also used to develop the promising services, such as provision of broadband internet access and international connections with help of IP technologies, introduction of a system of convergent voice communication services, video calls and data transfer.

Goldman Sachs has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in Facebook, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter. On Sunday night, a number of Goldman clients received an email from their Goldman broker, offering them the opportunity to invest in an unnamed “private company that is considering a transaction to raise additional capital.” Another person briefed on the deal said that Goldman clients would have to pony up a minimum of $2 million to invest and would be prohibited from selling their shares until 2013. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment. Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a transaction that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction. As part of its deal with Facebook, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook. The email sent to Goldman clients warns that recipients who trade in secondary markets where private firms like Facebook trade may want to steer clear of participating because if they opt in they may receive material non-public information on the unnamed company that will restrict future trading. The email said that even clients who receive the non-public information and decide not to invest would have to wait at least six months and possibly longer before they would be able to trade Facebook shares in the secondary market. These restrictions are lifted if Facebook goes public in the interim. Even though Facebook is not a public company it trades on secondary markets. The sellers in these markets are typically former employees of companies like Facebook and investors looking to unload their stakes. The buyers are mostly wealthy speculators looking to snag a piece of the next Apple or Google before the rest of the investing public can. Goldman clients who opt to receive more information will receive a private placement memorandum from Goldman in the coming days. That document will confirm the company involved is Facebook, and give other more detailed information about the investment. The original article is below: By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and EVELYN M. RUSLI Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction. The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner. The stake by Goldman Sachs, considered one of Wall Street’s savviest investors, signals the increasing might of Facebook, which has already been bearing down on giants like Google. The new money will give Facebook more firepower to steal away valuable employees, develop new products and possibly pursue acquisitions — all without being a publicly traded company. The investment may also allow earlier shareholders, including Facebook employees, to cash out at least some of their stakes. The new investment comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an inquiry into the increasingly hot private market for shares in Internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter, the gaming site Zynga and LinkedIn, an online professional networking site. Some experts suggest the inquiry is focused on whether certain companies are improperly using the private market to get around public disclosure requirements. The deal could add pressure on Facebook to go public even as its executives have resisted. The popularity of shares of Microsoft and Google in the private market ultimately pressured them to pursue initial public offerings. So far, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has brushed aside the possibility of an initial public offering or a sale of the company. At an industry conference in November, he said on the topic, “Don’t hold your breath.” However, people involved in the fund-raising effort suggest that Facebook’s board has indicated an intention to consider a public offering in 2012. There has been an explosion in user interest in social media sites. The social buying site Groupon, which recently rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google, is in the process of raising as much as $950 million from major institutional investors, at a valuation near $5 billion, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. “When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public,” said Chris Sacca, an angel investor in Silicon Valley who is a former Google employee and an investor in Twitter. “This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’ ” The Facebook investment deal is likely to stir up a debate about what the company would be worth in the public market. Though it does not disclose its financial performance, analysts estimate the company is profitable and could bring in as much as $2 billion in revenue annually. Under the terms of the deal, Goldman has invested $450 million, and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm that has already sunk about half a billion dollars into Facebook, invested $50 million, people involved in the talks said. Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75 million, to the Russian firm, these people said. For Digital Sky Technologies, the deal means its original investment in Facebook, at a valuation of $10 billion, has gone up fivefold. Representatives for Facebook, Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies all declined to comment. Goldman’s involvement means it may be in a strong position to take Facebook public when it decides to do so in what is likely to be a lucrative and prominent deal. As part of the deal, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook at the $50 billion valuation, people involved in the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the transaction was not supposed to be made public until the fund-raising had been completed. In a rare move, Goldman is planning to create a “special purpose vehicle” to allow its high-net-worth clients to invest in Facebook, these people said. While the S.E.C. requires companies with more than 499 investors to disclose their financial results to the public, Goldman’s proposed special purpose vehicle may be able get around such a rule because it would be managed by Goldman and considered just one investor, even though it could conceivably be pooling investments from thousands of clients. It is unclear whether the S.E.C. will look favorably upon the arrangement. Already, a thriving secondary market exists for shares of Facebook and other private Internet companies. In November, $40 million worth of Facebook shares changed hands in an auction on a private exchange called SecondMarket. According to SharesPost, Facebook’s value has roughly tripled over the last year, to $42.4 billion. Some investors appear to have bought Facebook shares at a price that implies a valuation of $56 billion. But the credibility of one of Wall Street’s largest names, Goldman, may help justify the company’s worth. Facebook also surpassed Google as the most visited Web site in 2010, according to the Internet tracking firm Experian Hitwise. Facebook received 8.9 percent of all Web visits in the United States between January and November 2010. Google’s main site was second with 7.2 percent, followed by Yahoo Mail service, Yahoo’s Web portal and YouTube, part of Google. For Mr. Zuckerberg, the deal may double his personal fortune, which Forbes estimated at $6.9 billion when Facebook was valued at $23 billion. That would put him in a league with the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who are reportedly worth $15 billion apiece. Even as Goldman takes a stake in Facebook, its employees may struggle to view what they invested in. Like those at most major Wall Street firms, Goldman’s computers automatically block access to social networking sites, including Facebook. (c) http://dealbook.nytimes.com

Austria's EPIC, whose Ukraine-based unit ESU was the only company to have filed a bid to buy the Ukrainian government's 92.79% stake in fixed-line monopoly Ukrtelecom, plans to restructure Ukrtelecom following the purchase, Peter Goldscheider, EPIC's managing partner, told PRIME-TASS late Tuesday. Goldscheider said the planned purchase of Ukrtelecom was a long-term investment for EPIC. He also said he was surprised that Russian companies did not file any bids for the Ukrtelecom stake, adding that he expected competition from Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Russia's multi-industry holding Alfa Group, and from major Russian mobile operator MTS. EPIC is ready to make serious investments in Ukrtelecom to carry out a large-scale restructuring of the company's operations, Goldscheider said. He also denied a rumor that EPIC was acting on behalf of Deutsche Telekom. The State Property Fund of Ukraine announced an auction for the government's stake in Ukrtelecom in October. The starting price for the stake has been set at 10.5 billion hryvnas. Bids were being accepted until Monday. A total of seven companies expressed an interest in taking part in the auction, and five of them signed confidentiality agreements. According to earlier reports, MTS and Ukrainian financial and industrial group System Capital Management (SCM) were considering taking part in the auction. On Wednesday, the fund announced a tender to choose an independent appraiser of the government's stake in Ukrtelecom. Bids for the tender are accepted till December 30, while the tender is scheduled for January 6, 2011, the fund said. The fund is carrying out a tender because only one company had filed a bid for Ukrtelecom stake. The fund's Chairman Alexander Ryabchenko said Tuesday that the stake could not be estimated at less than 10.5 billion hryvnas. An independent appraiser will have 30 days to estimate the value of the stake, the fund said. According to Ukrainian brokers, Ukrtelecom shares fell 10% on Tuesday and continued to fall on Wednesday. The company's capitalization fell 16.8% during the two days to 9.9 billion hryvnas. EPIC is a full-service investment house for Central and Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Russia, and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It focuses on voucher privatization, direct equity investment, and providing consulting and investment services. Established in 2005 in Kiev, ESU focuses on rolling out and modernizing mobile operators' networks, providing technical support, supplying equipment, and providing logistics services. It has branches across Ukraine. The company's net profit amounted to U.S. $430,000 in 2009, while its revenue was at $16.5 million. The accounting standards used were not available. (с) PRIME-TASS