VTB buyback instruction will not extend to Sberbank, Rosneft - Peskov
MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) - The instruction given by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to VTB to consider buying back shares from minority shareholders, will not extend to Rosneft and Sberbank, which are also carrying out so-called people's IPOs, Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said.
"Not yet," Peskov said in reply to Interfax's question about whether the same instruction would be given to Sberbank and Rosneft management.
For VTB the issue was the significant reduction in the value of the bank after the people's IPO, but the value of Sberbank and Rosneft did not go down, Peskov said.
He was unable to say whether such an issue could be considered in principle for Sberbank and Rosneft.
Sberbank Chairman German Gref told the press after Putin's speech: "our shares in contrast to VTB shares are quoted at a higher level than placement price as are Rosneft shares, as far as I know. That is why this question does not stand before our companies."
Gref said he had not fully understood the prime minister's proposal.
"This was news to me just as it was for you. I still do not understand it all," he said.
Rosneft Chairman Eduard Khudainatov did not reply to questions on the reason for the buyback of VTB shares.
When asked about the possible buyback of VTB shares from minority shareholders back in 2009, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said the decision would have to be a complex one for all companies carrying out people's IPOs.
Putin instructed management at VTB to look into a buyback of shares from minority shareholders.
"If you think that for any reason we are better off pulling out of those assets, then we could do it like this: I can ask the bank's management to consider buying these shares back from minority shareholders so that you don't incur any losses," Putin said at the Russia 2012 Forum, when asked whether the government was prepared to take measures to safeguard the interests of VTB minority shareholders in crisis conditions.
VTB sold shares at 13.6 kopecks apiece in the IPO in May 2007. It sold 22.5% of its share capital to Russian and international investors. This was the biggest IPO in Europe that year, raising around $8 billion.
The Rosneft IPO came first in the summer of 2006 and the company ended up with over 155,000 shareholders. The placement price was set at $7.55 per share. The minimum buy bid was 15,000 rubles. Rosneft share value reached a record high in June 2008 when shares cost $12.33. The last deal carried out as of 5:00 p.m., Moscow time, on February 2, was made at 228.2 rubles per share ($7.51).
Sberbank Russia placed shares in an SPO in February 2007 at 89,000 rubles per share (then Sberbank split common shares at a ratio of 1 to 1000) and raised 230 billion rubles. The bank received bids from individuals totalling 21 billion rubles. The last deal on the MICEX was made at 92.2 rubles.
