YEREVAN, April 2. /ARКА/. Goldman Sachs International will be able to sell minority stakes in a number of Russian blue chips to Balchug Capital CJSC, the same company that received permission from Russian authorities to buy the local banking unit of the American financial group.
Yerevan-based Balchug Capital was founded by David Amaryan, who serves as its CEO and oversees all investment activities. According to Interfax, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on April 2, according to which Balchug Capital can buy shares of Gazprom, NOVATEK, Inter RAO UES, Rostelecom, Surgutneftegaz (ordinary and preferred), NLMK, Rosneft, Tatneft and LUKOIL from Goldman Sachs International. After that, Balchug Capital will be able to sell these securities without requesting additional permission from the authorities.
The document specifies the exact number of shares of each issuer to which the permission applies. These are small packages, the most notable of which is 0.12% of Gazprom with a market value of almost 4 billion rubles.
The share in NOVATEK is 0.025%, in Surgutneftegas — 0.0006% (from the authorized capital), in Tatneft — 0.0074%, in Rostelecom — 0.056%, in Inter RAO — 0.04%, in NLMK — 0.0039%, in LUKOIL — 0.01284%, in Rosneft — 0.00998%.
Balchug Capital, established in 2010, is engaged in business and management consulting, equity investments and venture capital. Baltschug specializes in long-term and short-term event-driven and value-oriented strategies, as well as private equity investments.