The Russia Journal

MOSCOW — The possibility that Russian gas giant Gazprom is buying up 3 percent of Sibneft on the open market is low, traders at Russian investment companies say.

“It’s almost impossible to do this,” says Dmitry Peregudov, at Antanta Capital. “A small share of Sibneft stock is being traded on the open market. If Gazprom was indeed buying up Sibneft stock, the oil company’s shares would have doubled in price, but this didn’t happen,” he said. Peregudov thinks fluctuations in the price of oil are normal.

As we previously reported, Sibneft shares jumped almost 20 percent last week, from $3.1 to $3.7 per share on Friday.

Alexander Lobanov, trader with Prospekt investment consultants, doesn’t think Gazprom is aggressively buying Sibneft shares from traders, calling it “a purely theoretical possibility.” On the contrary, Khalil Shekhmametyev, chief analyst at Otkrytiye brokers, sees this as a plausible scenario. He noted that traders offered various explanations for rising Sibneft share prices.

“First, there were suggestions that companies close to Sibneft shareholder Roman Abramovich were buying up the company’s stock, trying to raise the price. Then, rumors appeared that Rosneft was behind the purchases, and still later, eyes turned to Gazprom, and I think this is the most likely explanation,” Shekhmametyev told RBC.

According to unconfirmed reports, Sibneft’s key shareholders are in talks with Gazprom to sell their stakes in the oil company. Millhouse Capital controls 72 percent of Sibneft, and a 20 percent stake in Sibneft, which was acquired by oil company YUKOS in 2003 for $3 billion, remains frozen. That stake is eyed by state oil company Rosneft, which bought YUKOS’s key production arm, Yuganskneftegaz, last December.


If Gazprom acquires Sibneft stock controlled by Millhouse Capital and buys another 3 percent of Sibneft shares from stock traders, it will get a qualified majority in the oil company (more than 75%).