Belarus looking to sell Gazprom 50% in Beltransgaz by 2012
MINSK. July 21 (Interfax) - Belarus will sell Russian gas giant OJSC Gazprom 50% of the stock in OJSC Beltransgaz this year, head of the Belarusian state property committee Georgy Kuznetsov said at a Thursday press conference in Minsk.
"The state's stake in Beltransgaz will be sold this year. The draft [of a purchase agreement] is practically ready, but you know that negotiations have been put off until the fall," Kuznetsov said.
The stake will cost $2.5 billion, he said.
"There are quite a lot of additional conditions attached to the deal: prices, tariffs, and much else. As soon as these complicated issues are resolved, the deal will go through as if through butter," Kuznetsov said.
"In the fall, I think," he said in response to an inquiry as to timing.
Kuznetsov said he did not think it mandatory to inform the general public and media of the completion of the sale.
Kuznetsov added that the Belarusian authorities also plan to sell stakes in oil refineries but "this issue, as you know, is at the discretion of the head of state".
He said that the committee has prepared a normative act, which has received the approval of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's administration. The act concerns the sale of the Nesvizhsky Medication Factory. "The state packet comes to 400 billion Belarusian rubles but there are many loans that need to be transferred as property, along with other problems that need solving," he said.
