Baturina to Sell Blue Chip Stakes

Inteko owner Yelena Baturina, one of the largest private shareholders in Gazprom, Sberbank and Rosneft, is prepared to sell her stakes in the Russian blue chips to pay back a loan from Gazprombank. The real estate developer owes Gazprombank about 15 billion rubles ($450 million), which is approximately half of Inteko's overall debt, Baturina said in an interview. Gazprombank was willing to restructure the loan, but only at an annual rate of 18 percent instead of the earlier 8 to 10 percent, she said, adding that "it's tough to work" with that kind of debt load. Instead, Inteko has decided to return the loan by either selling Baturina's stakes in Gazprom, Sberbank and Rosneft or by handing over the shares themselves. On Friday, Baturina's stakes in the three companies were worth a combined 18.5 billion rubles on the MICEX exchange. The loan from Gazprombank was supposed to be returned in March, but Inteko negotiated a suspension until the summer, a source close to the developer said. In addition to Baturina, Sberbank's largest private shareholders are Filaret Galchev, Suleiman Kerimov, Alisher Usmanov and Vadim Moshkovich. Last summer, Galchev held 1.85 percent in Sberbank, which is currently serving as collateral for a loan, a Eurocement official said. A spokesperson for Usmanov said his 1 percent in Sberbank and 1.5 percent in Gazprom were also being held as collateral, and that he was not planning to sell the stakes. Sberbank chief German Gref has said Kerimov's Nafta-Moskva holding has 1.5 percent to 2 percent of the state bank. Kerimov and Moshkovich were not immediately available for comment. Baturina bought her shares over the course of several years, and since the second half of 2008, they have been in the closed mutual fund Kontinental. In addition to the blue chips, the fund has Inteko shares, as well as stakes in energy and engineering companies. Baturina said some shares of Kontinental were also held as collateral for the Gazprombank loan, although she declined to say how many. A Gazprombank spokesperson declined comment. According to the mutual fund's disclosures, on Dec. 31, 2008, Kontinental had 0.44 percent of Gazprom, 0.387 percent of Sberbank and 0.03 percent of Rosneft. Sberbank shares are also on the balance sheets of other companies whose shares are in the mutual fund, an Inteko official said, bringing the stake in Sberbank to just less than 1 percent. On Friday on the MICEX the Sberbank stake was worth 5.12 billion rubles; 0.44 percent of Gazprom was valued at 12.97 billion rubles and 0.03 percent of Rosneft was 451.5 million rubles, for a combined 18.5 billion rubles. "I've bought stocks primarily with the money I received from selling cement assets. … I never would have made that much on cement factories," Baturina told Vedomosti in 2007. In April 2005, she passed those assets to Eurocement chief Galchev for $800 million. Inteko disclosures said Baturina's assets rose by 13.6 billion rubles in the second quarter of 2005 because of her purchases of Gazprom and Sberbank shares. Baturina said she would be closing her blue chip positions with a profit. Since April 2005, Gazprom shares are up 56 percent, and Sberbank shares are trading 27 percent higher. She said she was hoping that the country's stock market would begin rising again by the end of the year, in which case she would return as an investor. "What you do with shares is a personal decision for every shareholder," Rosneft spokesman Nikolai Manvelov said. Spokespeople for Gazprom and Sberbank declined to comment on the matter.