Gazprom to sell 10.5% Verbundnetz Gas stake in wake of Wintershall divestment
MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) - Gazprom intends to sell its 10.52% stake in German natural gas company Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) in the wake of Wintershall Holding's sale of its stake in VNG.
While before the Russian gas giant and its strategic partner Wintershall together owned a blocking stake of 26.31% in VNG, now Gazprom cannot have a real say in the management of VNG, the Russian company said.
"The sale of the VNG shares will not affect our longtime partnership with VNG and Wintershall Holding, cooperation with which we will continue to develop in future," Gazprom said.
Wintershall sold 15.79% in VNG to its majority shareholder EWE in the autumn of last year for 320 million euro, EWE increased its stake to controlling - 63.69%.
EWE became a shareholder of Verbundnetz Gas in 2003, when Ruhrgas sold its stake in the company during the merger by E.ON concern. Gazprom also claimed this stake, and even after this failure did not disclose its intentions to increase its stake in VNG and for the last several years brought it to 10.52%.
Last year Verbundnetz Gas supplied clients with 35.3 billion cubic meters of gas, including 6.3 bcm of Russian origin. In the last few years Wintershall has decided to focus on the exploration and production of hydrocarbons and leave the business for product marketing, which recently has become less profitable.
