Excerpts from the transcript:
Igor Artemyev: Today, the Government Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investment in strategic areas held a meeting.
It had an interesting agenda. The commission reviewed deals worth a total of over $3.5 billion. On the commission’s instruction, I’d like to comment on the three biggest and most interesting deals.
The first one is about the Vankor Field, Russia’s largest oil and gas deposit. The commission had already reviewed part of this deal before – when India’s ONGC purchased 15 percent of shares of the company in charge of the field for $1.2 billion. Now Vankor India Pte. Ltd, another Indian company, is buying a 23.9 percent stake from Vankorneft. So India has almost 24 and 15 percent.
Recently we received another application – the afore-mentioned ONGC is going to purchase an additional 11 percent stake. So, when the three stages of the deal are completed, India will have a total of 49 percent of shares in the Vankor Field.
We are going to discuss the third part of the deal at the next meeting of the commission. So the initial plan will be carried out.
Question: Has the 23.9 percent stake been approved?
Igor Artemyev: Yes, this part of the deal was approved today. So, in all India will pay about five billion dollars for a 49 percent stake in the Vankor Field.
Question: And how much will India pay for 23.9 percent of shares?
Igor Artemyev: It will pay two billion dollars for 23.9 percent of shares. So, $1.2 billion were approved before, two billion today, which makes $3.2 billion and the last package will cost about two billion dollars – that is about five billion dollars in all.
This can be described as a mega deal because the amounts of oil and gas controlled by Vankorneft are the biggest in Russia and among the biggest in the world. This is very significant.
Here’s another deal with the companies representing the Republic of India. The holding TAAS INDIA PTE. LTD asked for permission to purchase 29.9 percent of shares from the company Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha. This is also a very big oil and gas field. It is located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Rosneft is part of the deal as well. Importantly, it will keep its 50.1 percent stake in the charter capital, which means it will continue to control the field. The sides signed a joint stock agreement that allows the Indian company to fully use the benefits of the blocking stake. It has also been provided with traditional, usual forms of so-called negative control inherent in the blocking package exceeding 25 percent. So, there are extensive opportunities for making transparent the performance of the companies and their management.
This major deal was also approved today. It will bring $1.12 billion to Russian companies.
Finally, the third deal I’d like to comment on is with a company controlled by Qatar. FZ Holding LLC is buying a 24.99 percent stake in the Northern Capital Gateway Consortium, that is, Pulkovo Airport in St Petersburg, for 239 million euros.
Qatar’s airlines have good traditions and experience. The bulk of the capital will be controlled on the Russian side by VTB Bank. This deal will develop further and we will review additional applications.
So, these are the three largest deals that were endorsed today.
