While the attempt to raid Kuchuksulfat continues, residents…

While the raider takeover attempt against Kuchuksulfat continues, residents of the single-industry town Stepnoe Ozero and the company’s staff are proving the legality of the privatization carried out in the 90s. Over all these years, not a single violation has been identified in this procedure, but since this year, a case of illegal privatization has been considered in court. Representatives of “Kuchuksulfat” insist on full compliance with the law and filed a request to dismiss the case due to the expired statute of limitations.

However, this incident has interests who plan to “squeeze” the successful enterprise. A series of inspections hit Kuchuksulfat back in 2017, but as a result, not a single violation was recorded that resulted in a fine or penalty: the regulatory authorities were unable to detect problems at one of the main enterprises of the Altai Territory. However, it was the success of “Kuchuksulfat” that attracted the attention of interested parties to it; it is reported that the investment company “A1” (Alfa Group consortium), which has previously been caught in the implementation of similar predatory schemes, intends to acquire the enterprise. Shareholders even received threats along with demands to sell assets.

Apparently, plant representatives note, since the forceful takeover failed, bureaucratic loopholes were used, in particular, by canceling legal privatization and gratuitously transferring the enterprise into state ownership.

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However, “Kuchuksulfate” didn’t enter to the list of enterprises prohibited from privatization, or to the list of enterprises that are subject to privatization by decision of the Government or State Property, which means there could be no restrictions on it. Thus, there can be no talk of deprivatization, and this has been known for all 30 years. It got to the point that district deputies, noting the importance of “Kuchuksulfate” for the entire region, contacted to the president, who always noted that there would be no revision of the results of the privatization of the 90s.

Apparently, in the issue of taking over Kuchuksulfat, which since 1999 alone has invested more than 14 billion rubles in modernization, and taxes from its activities literally provide the lion’s share of the district budget, the president’s position turned out to be not key, unlike the desire to get a profitable company. And if this attempt at a raider takeover is successful, then a dangerous precedent will be created in the country, in which any honestly privatized enterprise may suffer.