US and UK residents hold 74% of private shares of Russian gas giant Gazprom
By Michael Hennigan, Finfacts founder and editor
Mar 19, 2014 - 8:25 AM
Email this article
Printer friendly page
A triumphant Vladimir Putin, Russian president, announced the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, to his power elite in the Kremlin's St. George's Hall, Tues March 18, 2014. He said about Russia's enemies in the West: "we were cheated again and again, with decisions being taken behind our back."
The Russian state owns half of the shares in gas giant OAO Gazprom while US and UK resident shareholders hold 74% of the privately held shares, according to JP Morgan data.
Some overseas Russian interests may own some of the shares but there is significant evidence that Western capital underpins the regime in the Kremlin.
The fact that the key energy companies that are an essential part of President Vladimir Putin's arbitrary control of the former communist state, suggests that serious Western economic sanctions in response to the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, would also impact business interests in what used to be known as the free world.
Bloomberg News says BP’s stake in Rosneft, run by Putin associate Igor Sechin, is the biggest single foreign investment in Russia’s oil industry and provides 30% of the London-based company’s production, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
“A downward spiral in Western state relations with Russia certainly puts BP and Exxon in a very uncomfortable position,” said Andrew Neff, an analyst at IHS, in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg's questions. “I would see a period of awkwardness and discomfort, but nothing so dramatic as a withdrawal.”
Reuters estimates that foreigners own 70% of the shares that are traded on the Moscow stock market, while big US funds such as PIMCO and BlackRock have pumped $325bn into stocks and bonds issued by Russian companies and the country’s government, over the past four years. Of that, $235bn has been directed toward corporate borrowings by the likes of Gazprom and state-owned banks like Sberbank.
|
Thread abonnieren
