Goldman Sachs cleared to sell shares in several blue chips to Balchug Capital

MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) - Goldman Sachs International will be able to sell minority stakes in a number of Russian blue chips companies to CJSC Balchug Capital, the same company that the Russian authorities have allowed to buy the American financial group's local banking subsidiary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 2 signed an order by which Balchug Capital is able to buy from Goldman Sachs International shares in Gazprom , Novatek , Inter RAO UES , Rostelecom , Surgutneftegas (ordinary and preferred shares), NLMK , Rosneft , Tatneft and Lukoil . Balchug Capital will then be able to sell these securities without requesting further permission from the authorities.

The order gives the exact number of shares in each issuer to which the permit applies. These are small packages, the most notable of which is 0.12% of Gazprom with a market value of almost 4 billion rubles. The stake in Novatek is 0.025%, in Surgutneftegas - 0.0006% of charter capital, in Tatneft - 0.0074%, in Rostelecom - 0.056%, in Inter RAO - 0.04%, in NLMK - 0.0039%, in Lukoil - 0.01284% and in Rosneft - 0.00998%.

The combined market value of these stakes as of 3:15 p.m. Moscow time, was almost 7.44 billion rubles or $87.6 million at the official rate on April 2, with no package except the Gazprom securities reaching 1 billion rubles.

Putin signed an order on January 31 allowing CJSC Balchug Capital to acquire 100% of the shares in Goldman Sachs Bank LLC. A CJSC with the same name and controlled by Armenian businessman David Amaryan's Balchug Capital fund was previously involved in a number of deals to buy out assets of foreign players leaving the Russian market, notably Caterpillar .