Russia still planning to sell 10% of Rusnano in 2012 - Belousov
MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - The Russian government still plans to sell 10% of state nanotechnology corporation Rusnano in 2012, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said at a Cabinet meeting.
The shares will be sold in a private placement. Newly issued shares will be offered and the proceeds will go to the company.
The Russian Federal Property Agency (Rosimuschestvo), Rusnano's sole shareholder, approved amendments to the company's charter in September to allow the partial privatization to go ahead. The company can sell an additional 5,971,300,000 ordinary shares or 10% of share capital post-issue (if all authorized shares are sold), and it is this stake that will be privatized.
Rusnano has hired a consortium of Merrill Lynch and VTB Capital to run the private placement. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is conducting due diligence for all Rusnano projects.
Rusnano's deputy CEO, Oleg Kiselev, said in March that the private placement might take place in November-December, but the markets have deteriorated since then and a company representative recently told Interfax that a decision on the placement's timing would be reached in September.
Rusnano plans to raise capital from both Russian and foreign investors. "We would like it if among our shareholders in the future there were authoritative, world-class international or national financial structures associated with state money, and also totally private money independent of any government. Yet another proportion is possible - a balance between financial organizations and technological structures," Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais has told Interfax.
Chubais said that the private placement is important to Rusnano as a step towards transforming the company towards full-fledged work on capital markets.