MOSCOW: Russia’s Gazprom said it had raised nearly $3 billion by selling a 3.6 per cent stake, which exchange data showed was bought by a single buyer, whose identity was not disclosed by the world’s largest gas producer.
The share sale, via a Gazprom subsidiary, was completed at an 11 per cent discount to company’s closing market price on Wednesday. Gazprom raised $2.2 billion in July through a similar deal, selling 2.9 per cent of its shares at a 5 per cent discount.
Gazprom said the latest deal involved about 3.6 per cent of so-called quasi-treasury shares, built up in several purchases over previous years, being sold at 220.72 roubles each, implying proceeds of 187.7 billion roubles ($2.95 billion).
Although Gazprom does not have to disclose the names of the buyers as both deals were below 5 per cent, data from the Moscow Stock Exchange showed that there was only one buyer in the latest.
Gazprom did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“The most important takeaway from both placements is that new shareholders with a total 6.5 per cent stake have appeared in the shareholder structure,” Sberbank CIB said in a note.
“It is not certain whether these new investors are strategic, though an overall investment of $5.1 billion suggests that most likely they are,” it added.
Gazprom is headed by Alexei Miller, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, who said this week that the company would stick to its policy of raising dividends as it responds to “challenges” in the global energy industry.
On Thursday, Gazprom said it had received 479 bids worth a total of 237.7 billion roubles. “It seems that low participation had an impact on the placement pricing,” Sberbank said.
The sale of treasury shares is positive for Gazprom in the mid-term due to the growth of its free float and a potential increase of its share in indexes, said Mikhail Poddubsky, an analyst at Promsvyazbank. — Reuters
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