Deal finalized for Russian government to acquire control of Gazprom
Interfax
June 16 2005
The Russian gas giant Gazprom’s board of directors has approved a
price for the sale of a further stake in the company to the state,
the Russian news agency Interfax reported from Moscow on 16 June. The
acquisition of more shares will give the Russian government control of
Gazprom with a view to “liberalization” of trading in the company’s
shares, another Russian news agency, ITAR-TASS, added in its report
on the development.
Gazprom agreed to sell an additional 10.74-per-cent stake in the
company to the state-owned Rosneftegaz oil and gas firm for 203.5bn
roubles, or 7.11bn dollars, Interfax and TASS said in their reports.
“The board of directors agreed that 2,542,500,000 shares in the
Gazprom open joint-stock company, which represents 10.7399 per cent
of its charter capital, will be transferred to the Rosneftegaz open
joint-stock company by Gazprom’s subsidiaries,” said Gazprom’s press
release as quoted by Interfax. Gazprombank, Gazprominvestholding,
Gazfond and Gazpromfinans were the subsidiaries listed. The price is
R203,501,700,000, the press release said.
“All members of the board voted in favour, including its independent
members such as chairman of the E.ON Ruhrgas AG board Burckhard
Bergmann and UFG honorary chairman Boris Fedorov,” Interfax’s source
on the board said. Pressed about Gazprom chairman Aleksey Miller’s
absence from the meeting, the source said there was nothing unusual
about it and that Miller had “given his view in writing”. Miller
himself was on a visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
“The state will thus increase its stake in the gas monopoly to control
it as part of plans to liberalize the market in Gazprom shares,”
ITAR-TASS said in its report.
“The way has thus been opened for the liberalization of the market
for Gazprom shares,” Fedorov told Interfax.
A meeting of Rosneftegaz’s shareholders – in the words of Interfax’s
source a “formality” – approved the deal the same day, the agency
added.