PRESS: Businessman, Vitol may buy Gazprom’s stake in Latvijas Gaze

MOSCOW, Mar 28 (PRIME) -- Estonian businessman Indrek Rahumaa and commodity trader Vitol are interested in Gazprom’s 34% stake in Latvia’s only distributor and seller of natural gas Latvijas Gaze, which Gazprom has to sell until the end of 2017 under the third energy package, Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday citing sources.

Gazprom already has several offers, including 130 million euros offered by Rahumaa in the autumn 2016 and 75 million euros from Vitol, which also wants the Russian gas giant to guarantee gas supplies, which Gazprom is not eager to do.

Vitol is the Latvian government’s preferable shareholder, the business daily said.

Gazprom confirmed receiving several offers, saying it is looking for the most profitable option that complies with the current legislation.

Latvia’s gas market liberalization law says that Latvijas Gaze has to be split according to types of activity until April 3. The company’s shareholders – Gazprom, Marguerite Fund with 28.97%, Uniper with 18.26%, and Itera Latvija with 16% – established Conexus Baltic Gridm, which will transport and store gas, in December 2016. On March 31, Latvijas Gaze scheduled an extraordinary meeting of shareholders that will discuss the company’s reorganization.

Sources told Kommersant that there are fears that Gazprom fails to sell the stake, the Lativan government may demand the shares be transferred to it, and Gazprom loses the possibility of choosing a buyer. Still, experts think that a fast sale below the market price is unlikely to happen.

Alexei Gorlatov, head of commercial practice at legal firm Goltsblat BLP, told the business daily that Gazprom will have to comply with rules of the third energy package, but that does not mean that it has to sell assets at a low price, and the Latvian government will not make Gazprom to

do that.

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