12 Oct 2010 11:54

RusHydro negotiating Hydroproject Institute buy with ESN group

MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - OJSC RusHydro , the state-run Russian corporation that operates most of the country's hydropower generating plants, is negotiating the purchase of the hydrotechnical design firm OJSC Hydroproject Institute with the ESN group, RusHydro representative Boris Zveryev told Interfax.

He did not reveal details of the deal-in-progress, and no comment has been obtainable from ESN.

The group's owner, Grigory Berezkin, said not long ago that Hydroproject is not for ESN a strategic asset and could be sold. At first, the main contender for the buy was not RusHydro, but electrical power holding Inter RAO UES .

"We initially expressed moderate interest, because it was a non-core [asset], but then it was not interesting at all for us," an Inter RAO representative told Interfax.