RusHydro to be ready for privatization after 2016-2017; considering options - CEO
MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - RusHydro will be ready for privatization after 2016-2017, CEO Yevgeny Dod said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television on Friday.
"We, as management, have always held the position that the state should retain control," Dod said.
However, Dod added: "I believe that, yes, we are interested in a privatization [that leaves the state with] more than 51%; this could be an IPO, an SPO, it could be an asset swap; we are interested in bringing in a strategic investor. In any case, a strategic investor and a partner - that is greater transparency for the investor and for our main shareholder, the state."
The arrival of a strategic investor would improve the quality of the company's project planning and facility construction and operation.
"After 2016-2017 we will be ready to make a placement at a fair price," Dod said, adding that the sale would be conducted on an exchange in Russia. "We are ready: the issue is liquidity and the value of the company," he said.
The state currently owns 67.5% of RusHydro shares and 2% is held as treasury stock, Dod told journalists. The company may consider selling a stake of roughly 16.5%, assuming the state reduces its stake to bare controlling, to a strategic investor in order to realize the greatest gain.
The company would prefer to bring in a strategic investor, Dod said. "We are calling for, in principle, a search for a strategic investor for the entire stake above 51% plus one share, which would remain in the hands of the state, and the rest would be privatized in a single lot. We could of course do an IPO, but a strategic investor is more interesting and preferable for us," he said.
Strategic investors from China as well as those in the U.S., Canada and Europe have show interest.
The company's market value should hit a maximum in 2017, when all the stations currently under construction are completed. "Under our plans, we will achieve the maximum price, given normal external factors, when we finish building the stations in 2017. Our big capex era is drawing to a close. We will start to have money coming in. Our only costs will be upkeep and modernization," he said.
"The important thing is for the rules of the market remain unchanged," Dod said. RusHydro reckons that it contributed 36.9 billion rubles since 2011 to the effort to hold down tariffs. "That is, it was pulled out of our company in order to hold down tariffs," he said.
State-controlled RusHydro owns the majority of hydropower plants in Russia and controls RAO Energy System of East and a host of electricity retail assets. Overall installed capacity totals 36,500 megawatts.
