Translated material
Chubais' three conditions
RAO UES will soon officially announce the terms of sale of Power Machines
Anatoly Chubais yesterday voiced his demands for the buyer of Power Machines. “I would like to sell this stake at a tender,” he said yesterday, commenting on the fate of the 25% plus one share stake in the machine-building holding owned by RAO. “The market logic of the sale is important to me.”Mr. Chubais also expressed the opinion that the appearance of a Russian strategic investor among the shareholders of Power Machines will be positive for the company. “I believe that the strategic path for Russian power engineering is the emergence of a Russian private “strategist” at the Power Machines company. Despite the fact that every word of these three is of fundamental importance to me. Precisely Russian, in no case foreign. I will be categorically against the appearance of a foreign owner of this package. It is a private and strategic investor, not a financial one,” the head of the energy holding emphasized.
According to him, RAO will officially announce the parameters for the sale of shares within three to four weeks. By that time, the energy holding will have already decided whether to exercise the pre-emptive right to buy out 30% of the shares from Interros, which last week announced its intention to sell them to a third-party investor.
Vladimir Potanin's company reported that it had found a buyer, but kept its name secret. To complete the transaction, Interros needs the other shareholders of Power Machines - RAO UES of Russia and Siemens - to waive their preemptive right to repurchase shares. “Either we buy out its stake in Power Machines from Interros, or we allow a potential buyer to do this. In the near future we will make a decision on which path we will take,” Mr. Chubais said yesterday.
Previously it was assumed that the shares of Interros and RAO UES of Russia could be sold simultaneously. And technically, the energy holding can achieve this by buying out 30% and subsequently putting a controlling stake up for tender. However, such a scheme is unlikely to suit the current buyer, who apparently received political sanction to consolidate control over the engineering concern. According to rumors, Alexey Mordashov has taken on the role of the buyer - the FAS, according to unofficial data, is considering an application from a structure close to the owner of Severstal to purchase a stake in Power Machines. And participation in an open tender, as Mr. Chubais wants, will almost automatically mean a higher cost for the package.