Thursday, January 20, 2005
Merger Still on, Cap on Foreign Ownership to Be Lifted â Gazprom
20.01.2005 MosNews - Russiaâs state-owned gas giant Alexei Miller, Gazprom chief executive, said yesterday that a deal with Rosneft would be carried out âin the near future,â Reuters quoted him as saying.
Foreign investors had feared that after Rosneft acquired Yuganskneftegaz, a chief asset of the embattled oil firm
âThe Gazprom share market will be liberalized in full and in the end will involve the removal of existing quotas for non-residents,â Miller added.
A merger between Rosneft and Gazprom, the worldâs largest gas company, would create one of the worldâs leading energy companies and raise the Russian governmentâs stake in the combined company to just over 50 percent.
The government has indicated that the âcapâ that limits foreign ownership to 20 percent would be lifted as a result.
The Gazprom announcement came after it emerged that Rosneft might partly finance its $9.35 billion acquisition of Yugansk through a $6 billion loan from the China National Petroleum Corporation.
The loan would be secured by an agreement whereby Rosneft will supply China with 48.4m tons of crude oil by 2010.
# posted by Deval : 8:14 AM
Contact me:
