China’s CIC plans to buy preferred shares of Russia’s Transneft

NOVOBUREISKY VILLAGE, Amur Region, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Chinese state investment fund China Investment Corporation (CIC) plans to buy preferred shares of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, President Nikolai Tokarev told reporters on Thursday.

Transneft and CIC held several working meetings in July to discuss prospects of cooperation.

“The Chinese partners were interested in buying a stake of preferred shares of Transneft in the first place. Generally, as I understand it, it could be interesting for them. We’ve confirmed our readiness for that and our partners, our alliance supported the idea. We are currently working on that and it is very much possible that we will get new partners in the form of Chinese (investors),” Tokarev said.

The Russian government owns 100% of Transneft voting shares.

In May, Gazprombank said in a statement that its affiliate Gazprombank Asset Management consolidated a 53.6% stake of preferred shares of Transneft. Gazfond Pension Savings is another large owner of Transneft’s preferred shares with a 14.85% stake. The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) owns 1.49% and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) 0.43%. The rest of portfolio investors own a total of 29.66% in Transneft.

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