The Russian government has decided that Rosneft and its president Sergey Bogdanchikov would be better off among strategic enterprises.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Rosneft Still Strategic Firm
Rosneft is back on the list of Russia’s strategic enterprises, the government said Thursday. The status will make it harder to cut the 75 percent state share in the company. Officials assure, however, that Rosneft’s membership in this elite club will not damage interests of private investors. Quite on the contrary, Rosneft will get an opportunity to ask for support from state coffers in case of bankruptcy, they say.
The government renews the list of strategically important enterprise every year. The Economic Development and Trade Ministry explained that Rosneft had been returned to the list as it meets the criteria of a strategic enterprise, supplying military enterprises.
Russian authorities were considering a decrease in the state share in Rosneft after the company went public last July. Russian presidential aide Igor Shuvalov said last September that Rosneft might be privatized in three years’ time. Director of the Federal Property Management Agency Valery Nazarov pressed to cut the state’s share to a controlling stake. These statements, however, met opposition at the Economic Development Ministry.
A Kommersant source in the government said that Rosneft’s presence on the list of strategic enterprises may “prevent a possible sale of the largest state-owned firms to private or foreign companies.”
The strategic enterprise status implies a number of privileges such as a special bankruptcy procedure when a company may apply for aid from state coffers. Rosneft, however, is far from being on the verge of bankruptcy, although it has borrowed $22 billion to buy YUKOS’s assets, driving up its debts to $32 billion.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 18, 2007
|
|
|
