Japanese and Australian companies dominate among 13 foreign companies planning to bid this summer for the United Mining and Chemical Company.

The starting price is $140 million for the company, Europe’s largest producer of titanium. Writing in Focus, financial journalist Kirill Sazanov compares this privatization to the sale of Krivorozhstal to ArcelorMittal back in 2005. He writes the titanium miner “is also the largest enterprise in its profile in Europe, which makes it of serious interest to foreign investors.”