Towards the end of his presidency, Vladimir Putin concluded a whole series of deals related to the distribution of state assets to close commercial structures.
During his last foreign visit, Vladimir Putin wrote off $ 4.5 billion of public debt swelling from petrodollars in Libya 1 in exchange for future contracts for the supply of weapons to structures controlled by Sergei Chemezov. In April, a competition for the right to obtain a license to develop the Udokan copper deposit, the world's largest in terms of copper reserves, was quickly announced. 2 The participants in the competition will be two consortiums with the participation of government agencies: one of them includes Rostekhnologii of the same Chemezov, and the other includes Russian Railways and Vnesheconombank. Thus, Udokan, which remained in the hands of the state and was “shelted” for all 8 years of Putin's presidency, suddenly began to rapidly look for a master - who would be either one close friend of the new prime minister, or another, but just as close.
Operation Sibur
However, the most egregious story is being played out before our eyes today, and it is connected with the withdrawal of the assets of the oil and gas chemical company Sibur. In other words, for a lightning-fast deal to sell this company to private individuals, it’s really hard to find. Sibur is the largest petrochemical company in the country. It includes 6 out of 8 West Siberian plants for the processing of associated petroleum gas, one of the country's largest petrochemical plants "Tobolsk-Neftekhim", 7 plants for the production of synthetic rubber, 6 plants for the production of polymers, 6 tire plants and 2 enterprises for the production of mineral fertilizers. The company's turnover in 2007 amounted to $6 billion, operating profit - $1.2 billion. Recall that in 2002 Sibur was already returned to state ownership, after the company's assets were illegally withdrawn by the former head of the company, Yakov Goldovsky, back in the era of Viktor's premiership. Chernomyrdin and the then head of the gas monopoly Rem Vyakhirev. In January 2002, Goldovsky was arrested right in the waiting room of the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, and Vladimir Putin publicly, throughout the country, scolded Miller for his sluggishness in matters of maintaining control over Sibur's assets.
Today, those same assets are rapidly slipping out of the hands of Gazprom in favor of private individuals, with the clear approval of the country's top leadership. First, in the course of a series of manipulations, Sibur left the direct control of Gazprom and ended up in the hands of Gazprombank (70% minus 1 share) and Gazfond (25% plus 1 share), which later sailed out of control " Gazprom” into the hands of Rossiya Bank (more on this in The New Times No. 11 of April 23, 2007). However, according to formal criteria, Sibur could still be attributed to the Gazprom group (Gazprom owns a minority stake in the same Gazprombank).
Cyprus offshore begins…
Now Sibur is finally - and very rapidly - going into the hands of a group of private individuals. On April 22, Sibur President Dmitry Konov and four other top managers of the company informed the Sibur Board of Directors of their intention to start negotiations with Gazprombank on the purchase of a controlling stake in Sibur in the name of their Cypriot offshore Hidron Holdings Limited. Five days later, the parties agreed on the price and preliminary terms of the deal. According to Russian media, Hidron may buy out all 70% of Sibur's shares from Gazprombank, based on a preliminary estimate of the value of the entire company at $3.8 billion, while a number of analysts claim that Sibur is worth at least $6.5 billion. Of the total amount that the buyers will pay to Gazprombank (53.5 billion rubles), 25 billion rubles will be taken from the current owner, Gazprombank, on credit with a three-year installment plan.
...and wins
In terms of the shamelessness of the theft of property from state-owned companies, the Sibur story certainly stands out against the background of other similar recent scams: Gazprombank is selling a controlling stake in the largest petrochemical company in Russia to its top managers at a price at least one and a half times lower, making out a deal of all for some week, and even providing "buyers" with a loan to finance the purchase!
Among other things, earlier Gazprom forgave Sibur 40 billion rubles. debt, having received in return only 5% of the shares of RAO UES of Russia and 10% of the shares of Mosenergo. Now, after the buyout of Sibur, its new owners can sell back to Gazprom the subsidiaries Sibur - Russian Tires and Sibur - Minudobreniya. Bought at a discount, selling back to the previous owner at a premium. For what merit are the five top managers of Sibur, who have been working in the company for only a few years, given the right to quickly buy out a controlling stake in Sibur on unthinkably favorable terms? The current president of the company, Dmitry Konov, has been working in it for only 4 years, of which he has been the top manager for less than a year and a half. Each of the other four top managers - less than five years. Judging by the speed and fantastic terms of the transaction, there is every reason to believe that the real beneficiary of the acquiring company - the Cypriot Hidron Holdings Limited - is not Konov and Co at all, but some high-ranking government official, who, perhaps, they want to reward in this way for the fact that "plowed like a galley slave."
Now, stock market analysts will have to come up with explanations for inexperienced buyers of Gazprom shares: why did the Gazprom group make a deal that would result in a loss of almost $7 billion in annual revenue and almost $1 billion in net profit?
Moreover, the argument used earlier - Gazprom is "getting rid of non-core assets" - will not work here: the associated gas processing business for Gazprom is the most specialized one. "Sibur" is taken away in the light of day and in front of everyone. Compared to this and other similar "deals", the infamous loans-for-shares auctions of the 1990s seem like child's play. The current power vertical operates on a grand scale, fearing nothing and hiding from no one. The only question is which company will become the next object of her immoderate appetites.
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1 Over the past 6 years, oil production in Libya has increased by more than a third due to the efforts of foreign companies.
2 Copper reserves amount to 20 million tons, or about 30% of all Russian reserves.
