MOSCOW – Gas giant Gazprom signed Russia’s biggest-ever takeover on Wednesday, buying control of oil firm Sibneft for US$13,1 billion from Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich.
Gazprom will acquire 72,7 per cent of Russia’s No. 5 oil company – and with it 660 000 barrels per day in oil output – taking the world’s largest gas firm a step closer to its goal of becoming a global energy super-major.”Gazprom is becoming an integrated energy company, and Mr.Abramovich is getting enough money to keep 15 generations of Abramoviches,” said Eric Kraus, strategist at Moscow investment house Sovlink.The state-controlled gas monopoly will raise its total holding to 75,7 per cent of Sibneft and thus ensure outright strategic control.A brief statement issued by Gazprom and Millhouse Capital, Abramovich’s investment company, said the two sides had signed binding documents.Gazprom said its board would approve the deal at its next meeting.”The acquisition of Sibneft is aimed at resolving Gazprom’s strategic task of becoming a global energy company and a world market leader,” Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who is also an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said in a second statement.Fund manager Bill Browder said Gazprom got a bargain.”If Sibneft was sold in an international tender, it would have gone for a much higher price,” said Browder, who runs US$2 billion in Russian assets for Hermitage Capital Management.Abramovich, Russia’s richest man, will be cashing in on a bargain buy made in the chaotic mid-1990s, making a windfall big enough to buy Chelsea’s most expensive player, Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien, nearly 300 times over.It will also secure the Kremlin control over a third of Russian oil, enabling Putin to use energy policy to project power and reassert some of the world influence Moscow lost after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.Market talk of an impending Sibneft deal has helped fuel buying of Gazprom stock over the past months, propelling its market capitalisation to US$124 billion.-Nampa-Reuters5 oil company – and with it 660 000 barrels per day in oil output – taking the world’s largest gas firm a step closer to its goal of becoming a global energy super-major.”Gazprom is becoming an integrated energy company, and Mr.Abramovich is getting enough money to keep 15 generations of Abramoviches,” said Eric Kraus, strategist at Moscow investment house Sovlink.The state-controlled gas monopoly will raise its total holding to 75,7 per cent of Sibneft and thus ensure outright strategic control.A brief statement issued by Gazprom and Millhouse Capital, Abramovich’s investment company, said the two sides had signed binding documents.Gazprom said its board would approve the deal at its next meeting.”The acquisition of Sibneft is aimed at resolving Gazprom’s strategic task of becoming a global energy company and a world market leader,” Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who is also an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said in a second statement.Fund manager Bill Browder said Gazprom got a bargain.”If Sibneft was sold in an international tender, it would have gone for a much higher price,” said Browder, who runs US$2 billion in Russian assets for Hermitage Capital Management.Abramovich, Russia’s richest man, will be cashing in on a bargain buy made in the chaotic mid-1990s, making a windfall big enough to buy Chelsea’s most expensive player, Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien, nearly 300 times over.It will also secure the Kremlin control over a third of Russian oil, enabling Putin to use energy policy to project power and reassert some of the world influence Moscow lost after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.Market talk of an impending Sibneft deal has helped fuel buying of Gazprom stock over the past months, propelling its market capitalisation to US$124 billion.-Nampa-Reuters
