17 June 2004 21:41
UES committee says no to genco cash auctions
"I believe that to sell the gencos for cash at their current value
would be against the interests of UES shareholders and reduce the
MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - The Unified Energy System (UES) Strategy and Reforms Committee at a Wednesday meeting
gave its backing to the methods being proposed for setting up wholesale generating companies or gencos, but rejected a
government initiative to sell them at special cash auctions.
Government officials have touted special cash auctions, at which
gencos could be sold both for cash and for shares in Unified Energy
company's value in real terms," committee member Vadim Kleiner, who is corporate research manager at
Hermitage Capital Management, told Interfax.
Kleiner said he voted against this too. "I voted against because I
don't think it would be a good idea to decide how to set the gencos up
System (UES), the national electricity holding, as their preferred method for selling the new companies, which will
be set up during the electricity sector reforms in Russia.
Another committee member said the committee generally agreed to set up certain gencos (Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 6) minus the
assets which they will initially use on lease terms, and others (Nos. 5 and 3) according to the base principle.
until their future has been determined," he said.
It is thought Russia's biggest power stations will be merged into ten gencos, four of them consisting of hydro
plants and six of thermal power plants. The state plans to retain its ownership of the hydro gencos but to sell the heat
gencos. The government has, though, spent months deliberating the method for selling the heat gencos and it recently
started to talk about amalgamating the hydro gencos. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU EMRG ENR ELG MRG] pr
[Interfax] |
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