MGZ is set to be sold for almost the price of a Kyiv shopping mall: in the privatization plan the plant was valued at UAH 6.27 billion

Mykolaiv Alumina Plant is planned to be put up for a privatization auction at the end of 2026. In the major privatization plan published by the State Property Fund of Ukraine, the expected revenue from the sale of the MAP is listed at UAH 6,270 million, i.e. UAH 6.27 billion.

This is almost on par with the price of a large shopping center in Kyiv: in the same privatization plan Ocean Plaza is valued at UAH 5,000 million, i.e. UAH 5 billion. The difference between one of the largest industrial assets in southern Ukraine and a capital shopping mall in the SPFU table is only UAH 1.27 billion.

Preparation for announcing the auction and the exposition of the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant are scheduled until November 2026. The auction itself, according to the document, may be held in November–December 2026.

Separately, the major privatization plan lists assets related to the MAP: bauxites with expected revenues of UAH 1,000 million and alumina — UAH 1,500 million. Their sale is tentatively scheduled for July 2026.

In fact, the state is offering the market an industrial asset that for decades was one of the key enterprises in the aluminum production chain. But for Mykolaiv the main question in this story is not only about the starting sale price.

The MAP is not just the plant, production buildings, land, infrastructure, remaining raw materials and the prospect of a restart. It is also a huge environmental problem that will not disappear after the auction. We are talking about the tailings fields near Mykolaiv, dust emissions from red mud and the risks to residents of surrounding communities.

Earlier Korabelov.info already wrote that the issue of almost 50 million tons of red mud remains around the MAP. This problem may become for the future investor no less important than the price of the plant itself.

The head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Dmytro Natalukha, said that the privatization plan for 2026 should make the sale of state assets more open and competitive.

“We have the ambition to make 2026 the year in which state assets begin to work more efficiently — through open auctions, transparent preparation and competition for the best price”

However, for residents of Mykolaiv auction transparency alone does not answer the main question: who will be responsible after the sale of the MAP for the tailings storage facilities, red mud dust emissions, environmental monitoring and people’s safety.

The comparison with Ocean Plaza is particularly telling. In the SPFU plan the capital shopping center is valued at UAH 5 billion, while the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant is valued at UAH 6.27 billion. Thus the state plans to sell one of the largest industrial assets in southern Ukraine for almost the price of a major shopping center in Kyiv.

And while for investors the MAP may look like an opportunity to enter a large industrial asset, for Mykolaiv this privatization must be about more than money. It must be about responsibility: for the plant, for the people and for the environmental legacy that has accumulated beside the city for decades.

Earlier we wrote:

• Kyiv officials came to admire the MAP: the plant is an asset, the sludge is almost a bonus
• Kim confused sludge with slag: “Korean Road” was found not in Korea, but near Kyiv
• They want to sell the MAP successfully, but first the issue of almost 50 million tons of red mud near Mykolaiv must be resolved
• Almost 50 million tons of mud and 16 cases of dusting: the MAP environmental problem reached the government
• The Mykolaiv Alumina Plant attracted the interest of a company from the New York Stock Exchange