The company Gazpromneft, which will unite the assets of Gazprom and Rosneft, will be chaired by Rosneft President Sergey Bogdanchikov, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller told reporters on Tuesday.
According to him, Gazprom and Rosneft will prepare a joint integration program by September 20. “The restructuring of Rosneft’s production assets will be carried out in accordance with Gazprom’s plan,” Mr. Miller said. He noted that, apart from those assets, Gazprom was not planning other acquisitions.
Mr. Miller said the evaluation of Rosneft would be completed before the end of this year. “Preliminary evaluations of Rosneft have been made, and we have some orientation points,” he stressed. “Gazprom is interested in increasing the percentage of exports in its oil business,” Mr. Miller noted.
He said the government would increase its stake in Gazprom to a controlling interest (50 percent plus 1 share) before the end of the year. According to him, 100 percent of Rosneft’s shares will be transferred to Gazprom. “The acquisition of a controlling stake in Gazprom by the government is the first step towards the liberalization of its share market without the risk of losing control over the company,” Mr. Miller stressed.
According to him, Gazprom will not issue additional shares in connection with the deal. The government will swap Gazprom shares for Rosneft shares to get a 50 percent plus 1 share stake. “Gazprom is interested in changing the structure of its share capital, giving access to strategic investors,” Mr. Miller said.
The acquisition of Rosneft by Gazprom solves the problem of liberalizing the company’s share market, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov told reporters. He said the merger of the two companies will allow the government to obtain a controlling stake in this large company of international significance. In Mr. Fradkov’s opinion, Gazprom is turning into a transparent structure, and the merger of the gas and oil companies will boost the competitiveness and effectiveness of the Russian company on foreign markets.
The Prime Minister said the merger would take as much time as needed to agree to all details. He did not rule out that Gazprom’s general meeting would approve the deal with Rosneft before the end of the year. He said it was not yet unclear which part of Gazprom shares owned by its subsidiaries would be swapped for Rosneft shares. It will be determined after the evaluation of Rosneft.
Gazprom’s authorized capital of about RUR 118.368bn is divided into 23,673,512,900 ordinary shares with a nominal value of RUR 5. The Property Ministry of the Russian Federation has a 38.37 percent stake in Gazprom, another 16 percent are controlled by subsidiaries.
The company Gazpromneft, which will unite the assets of Gazprom and Rosneft, will be chaired by Rosneft President Sergey Bogdanchikov, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller told reporters on Tuesday. 
