Gazprom sells second block at Kaliningrad CHP-2 to Inter RAO
MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - Russian gas giant Gazprom has sold the second block at Kaliningrad Combined Heat and Power Plant 2 to Inter RAO.
"Documents were recently signed. We've sold the block to Interfax. We've now sold off this property. All documents have been signed," the head of Gazprom Energoholding, Denis Fedorov, said at a conference in Moscow.
When asked about the transaction's detail, he said; "We'll return as much as Gazprom has invested". "We've carried out the objective, Gazprom has sold the asset without losses, Fedorov added. The company invested 17 billion rubles in the construction of the block. Fedorov said that this project was never a priority for Gazprom since the company only was carrying out a government instruction to build a facility within a tight timeline. Gazprom invested in the construction of grid infrastructure (around 1.2 billion-1.5 billion rubles, plus 500 million-600 million rubles for technical link-up). Negotiations are underway for their sale to Federal Grid Company .
It was earlier reported that Inter RAO planned to acquire a CHP block for its own shares. Gazprom, in turn, said that it was interested in receiving money in this transaction.
Both companies decided on the transaction at the end of 2010 but its terms were not made public. A source close to one of the companies said that a purchase in exchange for Inter RAO shares had been investigated with a view for their resale to interested investment firms.
Kaliningrad CHP-2 has 450 kilowatts in capacity and is a branch of Inter RAO. The station launched a new block in December 2010 built using Gazprom investment. Inter RAO and Gazprom initially planned to form a joint venture at the station. Each side would have contributed one block each to the JV. An agreement on creating the JV was signed in 2007 but this enterprise was never formed.