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French State Co. Buys into Inter RAO
Even as the world financial crisis goes on unabated, the Russian electricity industry has received a new foreign investor. The French state company Electricite de France will become a shareholder in the Russian state OAO Inter RAO UES. The companies signed a protocol on strategic partnership on Saturday in Sochi and the intended deal to buy a minority share in the Russian company was announced by EdF European director Marc Boudier after meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Boudier noted that the financial conditions of the deal would be the subject of future negotiations. The size of the EdF share will be determined after a new Inter RAO board of directors is elected on October 23.
“EdF is an ideal partner and cooperation with it may permit Inter RAO to enter new target markets and help in implementing projects for the joint acquisition of assets in countries where both companies are present,” said an Inter RAO spokesman. This is the first time the company has mentioned the possibility of expanding into Western Europe, where EdF is mainly active.
Inter RAO is the Russian monopoly electricity importer and exporter. It has about 8000 MW of capacity in Russia and abroad. Rosatom is the controlling shareholder in the company with 57 percent of shares. Former RAO UES of Russia minority shareholders own 38.5 percent in Inter RAO and about 4 percent of its shares are treasury stock. EdF is a French holding, about 90 percent of which belongs to the government. It supplies 75 percent of France’s electricity and has 37 million consumers. It has a capacity of 130,000 MW and its average annual income is about ˆ60 billion. More than half of its electricity comes from atomic plants.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 23, 2008
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