27 December 2007 - Gazprom is set to gain control of the Russian power generator OGK-6 after spending almost 21bn rubles ($852m) on new shares of the utility.
According to the International Herald Tribune, Gazprom said that it had paid 3.8 rubles per share for 5.5bn shares in OGK-6. That represented 46.6 percent of the new shares offered by OGK-6, based in Moscow.
Gazprom, which completed the transaction via its Gazenergoprom- Invest unit, had options on 51.8 per cent of OGK-6 before the sale as part of a share-swap agreement with Unified Energy System (UES), the national utility.
UES, the state-controlled parent of OGK- 6, allowed its minority shareholders to swap shares in units before it is dismantled in July 2008.
The board of Unified Energy approved the share-swap plan in July, allowing Gazprom to take control of a third of Russia's wholesale electricity generation capacity, including OGK-6 and OGK-2, also based in Moscow. The arrangement gives Gazprom influence over power supplies as far away as Siberia and in cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
After purchasing the 5.5 billion new shares, Gazprom will own a little more than 50 percent of OGK-6 following the breakup of UES, according to Bloomberg calculations.
OGK-6, which is raising cash to build another 1270 MW of capacity by 2012, did not say who acquired the other shares. The sale is to end Saturday.
OGK-6 may hold a second share sale in 2008, list in London, or auction a blocking stake to a long-term investor other than Gazprom to raise more cash, the Unified Energy chief executive, Anatoly Chubais, said in November.