Sechin held negotiations abroad on the sale of Rosneft shares

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, has spent the last few weeks on business trips abroad, during which he negotiated with potential buyers of the company's stake. In particular, for this reason, Sechin was not present on December 1 at President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the Federal Assembly. RBC reports this with reference to an acquaintance of Sechin.

An unnamed federal official also reported trips in recent weeks by Sechin and the company's vice president, Pavel Fedorov, to meet with potential buyers.

“If you find out [where Sechin was], we will understand who the buyer is,” RBC quotes one of the interlocutors.

According to an RBC source close to Rosneft, one of the countries Sechin traveled to was China. Earlier, as the publication writes, the chairman of the board of directors of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Wang Yilin, expressed interest in privatizing the company. The Vedomosti newspaper wrote that one of the buyers could be the Chinese Sinopec.

According to one of RBC's interlocutors, Sechin could not only find a buyer for 19.5%, but also negotiate a better price. According to the interlocutor, this stake could be sold for $12 billion. Other sources did not disclose this amount. On Wednesday, on the London Stock Exchange, 19.5% of Rosneft was worth $11.4 billion (at 17:19 Moscow time).

RBC

• According to the government directive, the deal for the sale of 19.5 percent of Rosneft shares should have been concluded before December 5, but this did not happen. Funds from the sale of shares (minimum 710.8 billion rubles) must be transferred to the budget before December 15. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said on December 6 that the situation was “developing as planned.”
• As reported, one of the likely options for the privatization of Rosneft is the purchase of its own shares from the Rosneftegaz company. According to Vladimir Putin, after this a “true” privatization of the state-owned company can be carried out with the participation of a wide range of potential investors.
• Igor Sechin usually attends the presidential address to the Federal Assembly. He was at the event in both 2015 and 2014 .