IES to buy blocking stake in TGK-5 via another generating co
MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) - IES Holding, the energy group of Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, will consolidate control of OJSC TGK-5 through another regional generating company.
VTB Capital, the agent in the privatization of a 25.1% stake in TGK-5, said six potential investors have submitted applications to take part in the tender process, but valid documents have only been provided by OJSC TGK-9 . Initially, seven strategic investors and more than 30 institutional received information materials on the tender.
TGK-9, which is controlled by IES, has offered a price of 1.08 billion rubles. The price represents a premium of 6% to TGK-5's share price on the Moscow Exchange on April 11 and is equivalent to the weighted average trading price in the past month, VTB Capital said.
The buyer and price are supposed to be approved by the Russian government, VTB Capital said. The price is in line with government expectations - the Economic Development Ministry estimated at the end of February that the stake could fetch 1.1 billion rubles.
TGK-5 has charter capital of about 12.303 billion rubles, split into 1,230,254,011,959 common shares with par value of 0.01 rubles each. The Russian government is selling 308,695,802,759 shares.
TGK-5 includes five thermal power plants in Chuvashia, Udmurtia, Kirov Region and the Marii El Republic with installed capacity of 2,467.3 MW. IES currently controls more than 40% of shares in the company, and the Gazprom group controls 5%.
"This deal is a successive step by IES on the path to creating a consolidated power company with the potential to growth shareholder value," IES chief executive Boris Vainzikher was quoted as saying in a group press release.
IES' acquisition of the blocking stake in TGK-5 was expected by the market, but the structure of the deal using another power company came as a surprise. Ahead of the tender, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service had only reported approving one application to buy the stake, from Cyprus-based Merol Trading, an affiliate of IES Holding that already holds 11.15% of votes in TGK-5.
Vekselberg said recently in an interview with Rossiya 24 television that his Renova group is prepared to invest up to a fifth of its proceeds from the sale of oil company TNK-BP in the electricity sector.
"About 15-20% will be channelled into the power sector in total," Vekselberg said.
Renova will get $7 billion of the $28 billion that state oil major Rosneft is paying for the AAR consortium's 50% stake in TNK-BP . Therefore, Renova could invest $1 billion-$1.5 billion of this money in the electricity sector.
Renova's principal electricity division is IES Holding, which owns strategic stakes in generating companies TGK-5 , TGK-6 , TGK-7 and TGK-9 .