Regulator expects Mechel to respond in early Feb on buyers of Vanino Port shares
MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) has asked steel and coal group Mechel to provide information on the buyers of its shares in OJSC Vanino Commercial Sea Port , the head of the regulator, Anatoly Golomolzin told reporters.
"We have sent requests on Vanino to two investors from the Mechel group. They are supposed to send an answer at the beginning of February," Golomolzin said.
The head of the FAS department for oversight of transport and communications, Dmitry Rutenberg told Interfax earlier that Mechel did not obtain FAS approval for the sale of most of the 73.3% of common shares (55% of charter capital) in Vanino Port that it recently bought from the state.
"There was no preliminary approval of the deal with FAS. We will study the situation. It's disquieting that the stake was sold not only to Russian, but also foreign investors, considering that the port is a strategic asset," Rutenberg said.
Mechel told Interfax that the sale of "the stake in Vanino Port was made to investors by Mechel Trans in accordance with the law."
LLC Mechel Trans, Mechel's captive railway operator, acquired 73.3% of Vanino Port's ordinary shares for 15.5 billion rubles at the end of last year. However, at the start of this year, Mechel announced that it had sold the majority of the stevedore's shares to foreign and Russian investors, retaining just 1.5% for itself. It is still not known who bought the shares.
OJSC Vanino Commercial Seaport is the largest stevedoring company at the Vanino port in Russia's Far East. The port is linked to Sakhalin Island by the Vanino-Kholmsk a rail ferry crossing. The company's second-largest shareholder is Olega Deripaska's En+, which owns 28.12% of capital (21.64% of ordinary shares) through LLC En+Port.