Panama Company Bids for “Slavneft” :: Charter'97 :: News

Only one purchaser desires to buy the Belarusian stock of shares of “Slavneft” company, reports RIA “Novosti”. The journalists learnt that from the Vice-Premier, the Minister of economy of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov. At the same time the official noted that negotiations with the company from Panama – the only one, which feels like taking over the Belarusian share of “Slavneft” – are rather complex and time-consuming.

Up until present, the main purchaser was “Slavneftebank”, acting on behalf of “Sibneft’s” interests. However, Andrei Kobyakov claims that it is the Panama company which is more active among the two potential bidders.
On November 22 Belarus put for sale its stock of “Slavneft” (515,087,000 shares), which constitutes 10,83% of the statutory fund of the Russian-Belarusian joint venture.
The starting cost of the Belarusian shares is 6,3bln Russian rubles. But, as noted by Kobyakov, the purchaser proposed a lower price, which doesn’t satisfy the sellers. At the same time, he raised hope that at the end the sides will reach a mutually acceptable consensus.
A decision to sell the company’s shares was passed in no time after the instruction of the Russian Premier on the privatization in the year 2002 of the federally owned stock of the petroleum company “Slavneft” (74,95% of the statutory fund).
An auction on trading the Russian lot of shares of the oil company “Slavneft” is scheduled for December 18 and will be held in Moscow.