ESN Group continues talks on buying RBC from Onexim - Berezkin
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - ESN Group may buy the RBC media group from Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim within the next few weeks, ESN Group owner Grigory Berezkin told Interfax.
"We are in talks, and you could say that our positions have been brought closer together now. We are not talking about months but about the next couple of weeks," Berezkin told Interfax.
The businessmen declined to give a figure for the deal at the moment, saying that this is a commercial secret.
Meanwhile, RBC shares grew over 8% on the news about the media group's possible acquisition by ESN Group.
RBC shares rose 8.6% to 8.43 rubles on the Moscow Exchange , their highest since mid-February.
RBC is a media group that includes an eponymous TV channel, as well as online and print media. After the economic crisis of 2008, the group suffered substantial losses and was acquired by Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim in 2010.
Berezkin's ESN Group owns two oil terminals, Uyar and Skovorodino; 50.5% of energy trader Rusenergosbyt, whose main customer is Russian Railways (RZD) ; and a controlling interest in Rusenergoresurs, a supplier of electricity to oil pipeline monopoly Transneft . ESN bought a controlling stake in the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house from Profmedia in 2007. Berezkin is also a co-owner of the Moscow version of the Metro newspaper.
