Yushchenko to Nationalize Ukraine\'s Biggest Steelworks

Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk has said he is ready to return the "Krivorozhstahl" Steelworks to the State, if the court rules so.

"What is important is the supremacy of law in this process, and not the President's wish", he said.

"At the same time I count on Viktor Yushchenko honoring the court decision, even if it is different from what he has expected", added Pinchuk who, together with Rinat Akhmetov, a Donetsk entrepreneur, practically owns the steelworks.

Such was Pinchuk's reaction to the declaration made by Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko that the results of the privatization of the "Krivorozhstahl" are null and void.

"All documents pertaining to the privatization of that plant that have been crookedly approved by the previous government, have been revoked. The process of returning the "Krivorozhstahl" to the domain of the State has been initiated", Timoshenko said after a Cabined meeting Saturday.

Later on, she added, a new auction to sell the plant would be held.

Earlier President Viktor Yushchenko had already announced a forthcoming revision of the steelworks privatization results. "The ownership rights in respect of property acquired by illegal means will be revised. This applies also to the "Krivorozhstahl" Steelworks, because it was stolen, not privatized", Yushchenko said during his visit to Moscow just after his inauguration.

The "Krivorozhstahl" Steelworks is Ukraine's biggest metal producer, controlling about 20 percent of its metal market.

In 2004 over 90 percent of the plant's stock was acquired by the "Investment-Metallurgical Alliance" which paid about $800 million for the deal.

The founders of the "Investment-Metallurgical Alliance" are Interpipe Corporation (Dniepropetrovsk) controlled by Pinchuk and System Capital Management (Donetsk) whose owner is Akhmetov.