Shuvalov cautious about state cos buying private co stocks
MOSCOW. June 7 (Interfax) - First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov takes a cautious approach to the purchase by state companies of stocks in private companies and thinks that issues like these need government consideration.
Asked by journalists about his positions regarding the possible interest of state companies in TNK-BP stock, Shuvalov responded, "As for me, speaking openly, I don't like such approaches." "When a state company acquires a stake in such a private company here, there is only one explanation for this - that the value of the state company will be will be increased as much and its attractiveness to potential private investors will grow as much, that this is justified at a given moment by quasi-nationalization," he said.
"We have at the time discussed this question, including in the banking sector, when there was the question of whether it was needed for state banks to buy assets, for example, Sberbank of Russia and others. We understood that the value of Sberbank will be significantly higher - the internal system of management changes, because it would become more transparent, and we don't think that in this case the government is interfering. As if the system of management by the bank is separate from the system of management by state assets. And we then, after all the debates, said, 'Well good, buy,' but only then should we be selling stock in Sberbank," Shuvalov said.
"That's why if a company [state] acquires private assets, firstly, it should be done transparently. Seems to me that it needs to be done only by government decision, publicly discussed, advised, then make a decision at a meeting of the government and then understand the end goal," he said.
That goal could the following, he said. "It is a realistic increase of company value, improvement of its condition. And secondly, the possibility for the investor to move on such conditions to this company, and these conditions become significantly better," he said.
