Translated material
Italy on a wire
During the reform of the electric power industry, the first foreign investor appeared
Yesterday, RAO UES of Russia sold generating capacity to a foreign company for the first time during the reform. Italian Enel offered 39.2 billion rubles for a blocking stake (25.03%) in OGK-5 shares . ($1.52 billion), this is 1.6 times more than the starting price. The Italian company had three competitors - NOVATEK, which stopped trading at the very beginning of the auction, the German concern E.ON, which reached the mark of approximately 1 billion euros, and RUSAL, which decided not to step more than one step beyond the 1.5 billion mark dollars. The chairman of the auction commission, managing director of Alfa Bank Rafael Nagapetyants told reporters that, in fact, there was a struggle for control of OGK-5. The fact is that after the separation of this company from RAO (and this should happen in the next four months), Enel will be the largest shareholder along with the state (since RAO still has a controlling stake after yesterday's trading), which should also receive a blocking stake in OGK-5 . But since the state will be able to sell these shares no earlier than 2009, then after the separation of OGK-5 from RAO and until that time, Enel will de facto manage the generating company. It was this circumstance that he explained such a high price that the auction winner would pay - $668 per kW of installed capacity. After the loss, auction participants from RUSAL only stated that they did not intend to overpay for the asset.OGK-5 was created as the very first wholesale generating company, which is precisely why it was ready for sale before anyone else. This company united Konakovskaya, Nevinnomysskaya, Reftinskaya and Sredneuralskaya GRES with a total installed capacity of 8.6 thousand MW. Of these power plants, the largest is Reftinskaya, with a capacity of 3,800 MW, and runs on coal. The rest of the stations are gas. Thus, in terms of fuel structure, OGK-5 is balanced.
For this reason, Gazprom was interested in this OGK last year. He sought to ensure that its IPO was not carried out last November, as a result of which the RAO stake was “eroded” from 87.7 to 75.03%, but that there would be a sale to a strategic investor. Then Gazprom could buy a blocking stake from RAO, thereby consolidating 37.43% of the shares. And after the separation of OGK-5 from RAO RAO, the gas concern, as a shareholder of the energy holding, will receive approximately another 6% of OGK-5 shares. Considering that more than 12% of the generating company's shares are traded on the free market, it would not be difficult to collect a controlling stake. But even if this did not work out, one could always claim a blocking stake that would go to the state. But the head of RAO managed to defend his position on holding an IPO and holding an open auction. After this, Gazprom, as they say in the concern, lost interest in OGK-5.
But Mr. Chubais finally has a chance to attract large-scale foreign investment in the electric power industry, for which, in fact, he conceived the reform. During the IPO in November, OGK-5 earned $459 million, while none of the share buyers were able to consolidate more than 1%.
Yesterday's winner, however, is not new to the Russian electric power industry. Enel has been cooperating with the ESN group of Grigory Berezkin for more than five years, their joint venture manages the North-West CHPP, and two years ago Mr. Berezkin and his associates sold a 49% stake in their company Rusenergosbyt to the Italians for $105 million. . True, at that time this company was engaged in supplying energy to the enterprises of Gazprom and Russian Railways, but now the gas concern has created its own energy sales structure and intends to displace Rusenergosbyt.
But Anatoly Chubais promised Western energy concerns shares in Russian generation, and a year ago he signed a memorandum of cooperation with Enel head Fulvio Conti. The Italian concern, as stated in it, is “interested in investing in the Russian electric power industry” and its strategic goal is “the acquisition of a stake in OGK or TGK at a level of not less than 25% plus one share.” Yesterday, in fact, the implementation of this memorandum began. Mr. Conti, as stated in a press release from Enel, said in connection with the victory at the auction: “This is a great day for good relations between Italy and Russia. For the first time, an Italian company is included as a strategic partner in one of the leading electricity companies in Russia... We intend to continue to share our experience, technology and people with the electricity sector for the benefit of Russia's social, economic and industrial development." And the head of the Moscow representative office of Enel Stefan Zvyagintsov told reporters: “Our task, of course, is to develop the company (OGK-5 - Ed. ), to make it a market leader. We will certainly increase our package. How, it remains to be decided, but it is clear that it is up to the test.”
In turn, member of the board and financial director of RAO Sergei Dubinin said after the auction that foreign participants “have a positive experience of interaction with the state, since they are partners of state-owned companies, in particular Gazprom.” At the same time, he pointed out that investment memoranda have not yet been concluded with bidders that would oblige the buyer of the asset to implement the already adopted investment program of OGK-5. And although in this case there was no IPO and the proceeds will not be sent to OGK-5 (according to the decision of the board of directors of RAO, they will be used to fulfill the investment plans of the Federal Grid Company and HydroOGK, as well as to form the reserve necessary for the reorganization of RAO), Mr. Dubinin still considers it necessary to conclude such a memorandum, preferably a tripartite one - between RAO, the Ministry of Industry and Energy and Enel. However, this issue, according to him, has not yet been resolved.
Representatives of the loser E.ON said that they do not despair and intend to win other auctions. “Now we will closely consider the possibility of participating in the additional issue of OGK-4. This company is interesting to us, and we would like to gain control in it,” Thomas Bull, project manager at E.ON Russia Power, told reporters.
But yesterday the Ministry of Economic Development did not hide their satisfaction with the high price for the blocking stake in OGK-5: as ministry representative Mikhail Kurbatov said, the more funds are raised at auctions, the less investment needs to be sought for the FSK and HydroOGK programs. One must assume that the state also expects to receive good dividends from the sale of energy assets.