Kremlin Has No Preferred Option in Rosneft Privatization Issue

Sputnik News

15:17 20.06.2016(updated 15:38 20.06.2016)

Moscow has no preferences in the issue of Indian or Chinese investors' participation in the privatization of Russia's energy giant Rosneft, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Moscow has no preferences in the issue of Indian or Chinese investors' participation in the privatization of Russia's energy giant Rosneft, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"There is no single preferred option, there is a balance between feasibility of the future composition of shareholders and cost parameters, or the income which the [Russian] Federation's budget will receive from the privatization," Peskov told journalists answering a question whether the Kremlin considered attraction of an investor from China or India to the process of Rosneft's privatization a preferred option.

Russia is due to sell 19.5 percent of Rosneft's shares in the second half of 2016.

Last week, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the ministry had allowed for Chinese companies to take part in the privatization of Rosneft.

The Russian 2016 economic development plan specifies partial privatization of state assets to support budget revenue. Rosneft and Bashneft oil and gas companies, the ALROSA group of diamond mining companies, VTB bank, as well as the Sovcomflot maritime petroleum and liquefied gas shipping company, are among the companies to be partially privatized.

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