Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Russian Roundup: Azeri Oil Money & Armenian Petrochemicals

Two of the top Russian business stories from today, courtesy of the Moscow Times:

Last week I posted about the $3.3b stock offering by Russian mega-bank VTB. According to the WSJ's DealBook, one of the first investors was the Azerbaijan sovereign wealth fund, and now new details have been published about the Azeri investment. According to the Moscow Times, "Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ has agreed to invest around $500 million in a new share offering by VTB, Russia's second-largest bank, the fund said in e-mailed comments." The investment would give SOFAZ around a 3% stake in VTB. Check out the Moscow Times article for more information.

On the subject of oil, Russian oil giant Rosneft has reportedly entered into talks with Armenia to acquire Armenia's largest petrochemicals plant, Nairit. Rosneft, along with Russian gas company Itera, is seeking to acquire the plant for its production of chloroprene rubber. Nairit is currently jointly owned by British Rhinoville Property Limited and the Armenian goverment, which own 90% and 10% of the company, respectively. Rubber production at the plant stalled in 2010 when gas prices skyrocketed to $180/1,000 cubic meters, making operations unprofitable. A modernization of the plant would require several million dollars investment by the Russians. Read more at the full-length article here.

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