As July 1 Nears, Voucher Prices Soar

The price of the privatization voucher soared Thursday, one day after the Russian government announced a large last-ditch sell-off of state enterprises, but experts said that the voucher's rise did not necessarily reflect interest in the 76 companies slated to hit the auction block this month.The voucher hit 40,000 rubles (about $20.50) at the Russian Raw Materials and Commodities Exchange Thursday, compared to about 30,000 rubles Wednesday. Marianna Astakhova, the head of the analytical department of the exchange, said the rise started Wednesday evening right after privatization chief Anatoly Chubais announced that the government would sell stakes in 63 of "the biggest jewels in the privatization crown" before the voucher privatization program ends July 1. According to a privatization list published by the State Property Committee, which runs the voucher program, the total number of enterprises that will hit the auction block this month is actually 76.Private investment experts, however, were neither dazed by Chubais' glittering speech nor moved by the voucher's rally."It won't change our policy at all," said Mikhail Kharshan, the head of the First Voucher Fund, Russia's largest voucher investment fund. "Nothing has really happened."Igor Smolkin, the financial director of the Alfa-Kapital voucher investment fund, said that the companies scheduled to hit the auction block this month -- including enterprises like oil conglomerate Nizhnevartovskneftegaz, chemical producer Apatit and the giant Norilsk Nickel Factory -- were actually less profitable than ones sold previously.He cited the example of Norilsk Nickel, which Chubais called "the pearl" of factories slated for privatization, saying that anyone investing in the company would not only face the danger of bankruptcy but the social problems that would ensue. Norilsk Nickel provides jobs for nearly the entire population of Norilsk, paying for electricity and all social programs. "It is cheaper to close it down than to keep it going," Smolkin said, adding that Norilsk Nickel might soon face demands to compensate Scandinavian countries for environmental damage caused by its heavily polluting machinery in the Murmansk region.Regarding the voucher's rise, Smolkin said that serious investors had already bought enough vouchers to take part in the upcoming privatization auctions, meaning that the remaining market was purely speculative and did not reflect genuine interest in the companies slated for privatization. He predicted a fall in the voucher's value next week.The total number of vouchers traded Thursday at the Russian Raw Materials and Commodities Exchange was about 157,000, compared to the 22 million that the State Property Committee estimates remain uninvested.