Moscow press review for March 14, 2011
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on March 14. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
VEDOMOSTI
The TNK-BP Board of Directors met in Paris last Saturday to decide on the company's involvement in the deal between BP and Rosneft . No decision was made, as BP representatives voted against and representatives of AAR (Alfa, Access and Renova) for the deal, the TNK-BP press service reports. In line with the shareholder agreement this means that TNK-BP cannot enter the deal with Rosneft. "The management is extremely disappointed," TNK-BP CEO and coowner Mikhail Fridman said." Involvement in the deal with Rosneft could have been extremely beneficial for TNK-BP and its shareholders financially and strategically."
Inter RAO will place 16 issues of exchange bonds worth a total sum of 100 billion rubles. The company disclosed the decision made by its Board of Directors on Friday. These will be three-year bonds and each issue will be worth 5 billion to 10 billion rubles. The company needs the money for replenishing its working capital, for general corporate needs and for refinancing current debts, a company statement says.
Why Sberbank bought Troika Dialog, why the terms of the deals were such as they were and how Troika is going to evolve within the Sberbank group was disclosed to Vedomosti by Andrei Donskikh who oversaw the deal. "In the first place we were choosing a comprehensive, universal player with a leading position. Secondly, we were choosing a team that would be close to us in its corporate culture and could adapt our culture," he said. Donskikh said that other options were also considered. "At the end two were left. Previously we considered all key players on the Russian market holding the first to the tenth position in investment and banking. However, the synergy volume with them would have been insignificant," he said. ("We bought Time for Money," - Andrei Donskikh, Sberbank Deputy CEO)
The Ukrainian State Property Fund announced that it signed a trade deal for 92.7% in Ukrtelecom with EPIC Services Ukraine which manages "projects of building, upgrading and servicing" cellular communication networks and which has belonged to EPIC fund (Austria) since July 2006. The price of the stake in Ukrtelecom was evaluated at 10.575 billion hryvni ($1.33 billion). The buyer has to pay the sum within 60 days with the exception of the 10% pledge that was submitted earlier. According to Interfax, EPIC plans to consolidate Ukrtelecom market positions with an eye of selling it to a strategic investor or taking it to the exchange in 4-5 years. ("Ukrtelecom goes to Austrians")
KOMMERSANT
The Russian government intends to put off the transition to state programs as a mechanism of financing government investment from 2012 to 2013. This will reduce the burden on the state machinery in the process of shaping the 2012 budget but will open up an opportunity to increase social spending in 2011 ahead of the elections. On Friday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the government is thinking of an unscheduled hike in the salaries of public workers. The issue of boosting pension payments ahead of elections is highly likely to appear on the agenda too. (p. 8 "State Programs look Ill-Timed")
The Russian market remains in the center of attention of foreign investors. Last week foreign funds working with Russian securities attracted almost $500 million which is the third biggest result in five years. Investors prefer the most liquid oil and gas shares with an eye on being involved in the growth of world oil prices and the growth of the Russian oil and gas sector itself. (p. 10 "Oil swallows Investment")
New domestic aircraft continues to cause losses to its users. In 2010 Rossia airlines lost 300 million rubles on the use of the Russian-Ukrainian Antonov An-148 aircraft. The delivery of SSJ to Aeroflot is again being put off. The biggest operator of Russian aircraft Red Wings airlines has estimated its losses in profitability compared to Western analogs at 30%. Officials admit that the state will have to subsidize not only the production but also the use of loss-making aircraft. (p. 11 "Russian Aircraft to be fuelled from Budget")
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