New owner selected by Kremlin

Today, we can say that with a high probability the new owner of a 49-percent stake in Transpetrol will become Gaspromneft, a subsidiary of the Russian giant Gasprom. The figures for last year were record-breaking. Revenues of 20.2 bil. USD and 3.6 bil. USD profit after tax. Slovakia has given in regarding the repurchase of Transpetrol shares. As an answer to TREND's question whether Slovakia would participate in the tender in which the bankruptcy trustee Eduard Rebun will offer for sale a company owning a stake in Transpetrol, the spokesman of the Ministry of Economy, Branislav Zvara, only provided a general answer that 'there are several solutions to this situation and so the representatives of all parties involved agreed that they would not inform the media before the transaction has been concluded. This concerns interim reports on progress should the situation develop in one of the expected directions.' In the opinion of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov the fate of the 49-percent stake owned by the Dutch company Yukos Finance should develop in favour of Russia and Slovakia. The Russian Prime Minister made this announcement after his meeting with the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico. 'At all management levels there is an action plan agreed and we will solve this issue in a way favourable for both the countries,' quoted press agency RIS Novosti M. Fradkov. The Kommersant daily developed its ideas even further saying that the Slovak government should exchange Transpetrol for 'the promise of oil and gas deliveries'. Currently, gas utility Slovensky plynarensky priemysel is negotiating a new gas delivery contract. (authors)