Moscow press review for April 8, 2011
MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on April 8. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
VEDOMOSTI:
Investment in the Vankor project exploration until 2037 will total 960 billion rubles ($34 billion). Such is the appraisal made by the Index expert center, Rosneft said. The appraiser was hired by Rosneft at the behest of the Economic Development Ministry, company president Eduard Khudainatov said in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. Late last year Rosneft estimated the project investment at 640 billion rubles. Then the bar was raised to 754 billion rubles. A company spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the documents but declined to elaborate. But the field exploration program will not be changed, Rosneft said. ("Oil trillion")
Belarus cold sell part of the government stake in Beltransgaz as early as this year, Director of the State Property Committee's State Property Foundation Natalya Zhernosek said on Thursday, according to Interfax. The country's general plan is to receive $3 billion in revenues from privatization in 2011, she said. Earlier this year Minsk said it was "ready to consider" the sale of Beltransgaz shares, a Russian official involved in gas talks said. He added he was talking about the asset sale precisely to Gazprom , he added. However, so far there were no specific talks, the government official said. ("Trading for gas")
Having gained control over one of the world's largest uranium companies, Canada's Uranium One (U1), Atomredmetzoloto wants to bring it to a Russian exchange, said Vadim Zhivov, the company's president and the general director of its main shareholder, Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ). The final decision could be made before the end of the year, so it is too soon to elaborate, he said. Canada is likely to remain for U1 the main platform from the liquidity point of view, but it does plan to leave South Africa, Zhivov said. U1 is now "a half Russian company," there is a great interest in it on the part of local investors, so it would be logical to allow them to buy securities in Russia, the top manager said. ("U1 will come to Russia," also Kommersant, page 11, "Uranium One drawn to exchange")
KOMMERSANT:
The investment decision to explore one of Gazprom's key projects - the Shtokman field - is being delayed. The deadline initially set for March has already been disrupted, and now the monopoly's management is promising to make the decision "before the end of the year." Gazprom never agreed upon the technological side of the project with its partners, France's Total and Norway's Statoil. But the main reason is that it is still unclear whether gas from this field will find a European consumer.(page 11, "Shtokman postponed until year end")
Russia's largest manufacturer of phosphorous fertilizers, PhosAgro, has decided to pay record dividends, almost 30 billion rubles, to its shareholders in the run-up to the IPO. Until now the company has been paying much less, mainly on the preferred stock. As a result Phosagro board chairman and President of the St. Petersburg Mining University Vladimir Litvinenko could receive almost 1.5 billion rubles, and PhosAgro General Director Maxim Volkov around 300 million rubles. PhosAgro's main shareholder is Senator Andrei Guryev. (page 9, "PhosAgro is dumping profit")
Russian Railways has rejected the idea of an IPO in the country's First Cargo Company (PGK) and wants to put it up for an auction, access to which will only be allowed for the selected few from the Russian transport market. On April 19, the monopoly's board of directors is due to approve the initial selling price of 75% shares in PGK at $4.5 billion, following which RZD will have about six months to receive a government permission to conduct trading. Analysts said the auction could increase the asset's value by 15-20%, but doubt its transparency. (page 11, " First Cargo to be unloaded at auction").