Energy is in full swing

Vladimir Putin is equidistant from Gazprom and RAO UES

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin again had to personally “settle” the differences of his subordinates in the process of reform of the electric power industry. This time it was about the exchange of electric power assets between the shareholders of the liquidated RAO UES of Russia . In recent days, negotiations between Gazprom and the Ministry of Economic Development on this matter have reached a dead end. As is known, the concern wants the stakes in HydroOGK and the Federal Grid Company (FGC), which it will receive as a shareholder of RAO UES during the reorganization of the energy holding, to be exchanged for stakes in thermal generating companies that will go to the state as a shareholder of RAO . German Gref is categorically against this, since he believes that only blocks of shares in thermal generating companies can be exchanged. While the parties are arguing , the convening of an extraordinary meeting of RAO shareholders on the reorganization of the energy holding, which RAO top management promised to hold in September, is being postponed.

According to Vremya Novostei, this confrontation was brought before the president's court on an emergency basis (the heads of the companies did not take part in the meeting - Alexey Miller is still in the hospital, and without him it would have been politically incorrect to invite Anatoly Chubais). The topic was put on the agenda at the insistence of German Gref.

At the beginning of the meeting, Vladimir Putin said: “On the distribution of RAO UES assets during the completion of the company’s reorganization stage. Also an important question. There are different approaches. In general, the situation in the electric power industry has been developing quite well recently. I would like to note that it was not in vain that we have gathered together many times in recent months. There is some progress. I also propose to discuss this topic in more detail.” During the meeting, as a source close to its participants told Vremya Novostey, the parties outlined their positions.

The position of the gas monopolist is that, as part of its energy strategy, the concern intends to become a major player in the electricity market, and is therefore interested in obtaining large blocks of shares in heat generating companies. By exchanging the shares of HydroOGK and FSK for securities of OGK and TGK, the concern would help the authorities implement the law “On Electric Power Industry,” which stipulates the need to increase the state’s share in FSK and HydroOGK at the end of the reform from 52 to 75% of shares. The Ministry of Economic Development does not agree: in the event of such an exchange, it will be impossible to sell the state’s share in OGK and TGK and use the money from the transactions to implement the investment program of FSK and HydroOGK. In addition, RAO collected proposals from minority shareholders for the exchange of assets on the condition that shares of the grid and hydro-generating companies would not participate in the exchange. Therefore, if Gazprom is allowed to make such an exchange, one can theoretically expect lawsuits from other shareholders. Which will not benefit the reform in any way.

A Vremya Novostey source in the Kremlin says that “the meeting was tense” and “there was no final decision.” German Gref was able to convince Vladimir Putin not to approve of Gazprom’s position, but he also failed to win the president over to his side. As a result, it was decided to meet again (the exact date was not determined, but the conversation, according to the source, was about one or two weeks) and consider compromise solutions. By the way, the decisive event in this period may be the recovery of Mr. Miller.

At the moment, there are obviously no worked out compromises, otherwise they would have been presented to Vladimir Putin. But a source from Vremya Novostey, familiar with the results of the meeting, believes that in this matter much depends on the list of assets that Gazprom is laying claim to: in exchange for its agreement not to change the shares of FSK and HydroOGK, it may be promised a controlling stake in some OGK and TGC. Apparently, negotiations between the monopolists in the coming weeks will proceed in exactly this vein.

As for the extraordinary meeting of RAO, it, according to a Vremya Novostei source, will take place at the end of October - beginning of November. The energy holding says that such a shift should not affect the timing of the reorganization. After all, in December last year an extraordinary meeting was already convened on the issue of spinning off OGK-5 and TGK-5 as part of the first stage of the reorganization, and in a month this reorganization will be completed. So the procedure has already been worked out, and therefore the process can even be accelerated. The decision to convene a meeting, according to a source close to RAO, can be made either at the next meeting of the energy holding’s board of directors on July 27, or in August.

Nikolay GORELOV, Andrey DENISOV