Excerpts from the transcript:
Igor Artemyev: The commission stated that, since the start of 2016, we had received 11 lucrative applications for transactions involving control over Russia’s strategic assets. We have received applications from companies in Japan, the United States, Norway, and Cyprus. They are about buying service providers operating at Russian ports, pharmaceutical companies, and businesses engaged in the manufacturing of equipment for nuclear power plants, printing and subsurface use equipment.
Since January 1, we have seen an increase in the number of applications concerning Russia’s strategic assets filed by foreign investors from different countries.
The acquisition by the Indian state-owned ONGC oil company of a 15-percent interest in Vankorneft – Russia’s major subsurface user – is a major transaction that is strategically important for Russia. Vankorneft is a 100-percent subsidiary of Rosneft, and Vankor is the largest oil and gas field discovered in Russia in the past 25 years.
Plans are in place to produce about 500 million tonnes of oil and about 182 billion cubic metres of gas jointly by the Russian and Indian sides at this field alone.
The Indian side will pay about $1.3 billion for Vankorneft shares. Rosneft’s senior executives have recently signed a preliminary agreement with the Indian side for it to buy an additional stake in Vankorneft that covers other oil and gas fields operated by this company.
The commission was in favour of this transaction and, as the Government of India also approved it, the transaction will be executed in the near future.
The second transaction involves another Russia’s
strategically important company – Geotechnology – which is based in
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. This company owns licences covering several deposits
that boast large quantities of nickel, copper and cobalt, and also gold,
platinum and palladium. It is Russia’s second-largest nickel deposit, and is
operated by Geotechnology. The Swiss Molumin AG intends to acquire 100 percent,
respectively, of the company named AMP, which, in turn, owns and plans to sell 75 percent of
Geotechnology. The commission approved this transaction as well.
Another 11 transactions from the same areas of business will be submitted for approval by the commission soon.
We are already working on about 15 such transactions. Even in quieter times, we used to receive fewer than 15 transactions per quarter. Investors who before stayed on the sidelines amid political and economic uncertainty began to take important decisions and to approach the commission in the first quarter of 2016. They are willing to invest their money in Russia’s strategic assets, which is a good sign.
Today, we reviewed a transaction worth billions of dollars. The Yamal deal is also worth billions of dollars. Additional Indian transactions are also measured in billions of dollars. They all concern developing entire regions and huge agglomerations. They’ll have an enormous multiplication effect. Over time, these deposits and transactions may become the flagships of the Russian economy.
