President Vladimir Putin refused to allow the participation of “Rosneft” in the privatization of the controlling stake of the company “Bashneft”, reports Bloomberg, citing two familiar with the matter sources.
According to the Agency, with reference to the interlocutors, Putin rejected the appeal of” CEO of “Rosneft” Igor Sechin on the admission to participation in privatisation. In a press-service “Rosneft” refused to comment on the situation with the privatization of “Bashneft” and to request permission to buy the state share of the company against Putin.
Earlier it was reported that in late July, Rosneft submitted an application to participate in the privatization of Bashneft, but the Ministry of economic development and other agencies opposed.
“This company is in fact public and its participation in the privatization is inexpedient,” — said the Minister of economic development Alexei Ulyukayev. Presidential aide Andrei Belousov said that the possibility of participation of Rosneft in the transaction with the shares of Bashneft “stupidity”.
In turn, the press Secretary of the head of state, Dmitry Peskov initially said that the authorities have an understanding that state-owned companies cannot participate in the privatization of “Bashneft”. According to him, “this understanding was recorded in the government and in the administration.” Later, Peskov said that from a formal point of view, Rosneft is a state company, but “there are different points of view on this matter”.
The market price of 50% of shares of “Bashneft”, according to the organisers of the privatization transaction, is approximately 306 billion rubles, or approximately $4.6 billion, which is almost 19% above the weighted average market price of “Bashneft” for the last three months.
