| Mosenergo shares almost tripled in price over the week Trading in Mosenergo shares yesterday broke all stock market records: within an hour, the energy company's shares rose in price by as much as 70% compared to the closing price of the previous day. And from September 28, quotes increased from 3.61 to 9.95 rubles. per piece, or by 275%. Experts believe that such a rapid rise in share prices is due to their purchase, which is most likely carried out by Gazprom structures. The gas concern, market participants believe, is seeking to obtain the necessary securities for a blocking stake (25% plus one share) in order to further suspend the adoption of unacceptable decisions on the restructuring of Mosenergo by its other major co-owners - the Moscow government and RAO UES of Russia. . Almost no one believes the statements of Gazprom representatives claiming that the concern’s structures are not buying up Mosenergo shares.
The rapid growth in share prices of the capital's energy company led to the fact that trading in them on the MICEX was suspended yesterday until the order of the Federal Service for Financial Markets. Over the past week, this is the third interruption in operations announced by the exchange due to the rapid growth of the energy company's securities. However, he threatens some kind of investigation, which could be carried out by the Federal Financial Markets Service, as was the case a month ago with the securities of OJSC Interural. However, in the case of Mosenergo, the regulator is still carrying out standard procedures, and trading will most likely be resumed in the coming days.
The results of Mosenergo’s unexpected breakthrough look somewhat absurd: the capitalization of the capital company, if we focus on the price achieved on the MICEX, now amounts to more than $9.5 billion, or three quarters of the capitalization of RAO UES of Russia. The usual references for the Russian market to the activity of stock speculators in the situation with Mosenergo are hardly appropriate: speculators are simply not ready for such price levels. Consequently, we are talking about some kind of strategic investor who is buying up securities, no matter what. There were even fears on the market that this investor would take over the last free float shares of the energy company (in the newly approved list of shares for calculating the RTS index from October 1, the free float of Mosenergo was estimated by exchange experts at 25%).
The physical shortage of the energy company's shares is more likely due not to their deficit in public circulation, but to the competition that may have developed between Gazprom and another major investor, the Moscow government, which has long intended to strengthen its position in Mosenergo. Representatives of Gazprom have repeatedly stated that they intend to block the plan for reforming Mosenergo, since the concern is not satisfied with the idea of separating Mosenergo’s generating capacities into several structures. Igor POLISCHUK |
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