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According to information from Kommersant, Rosseti could sell the company’s stake in Inter RAO for 23 billion rubles. and refuse to pay dividends of the same amount to finance the construction of power grids at the eastern test site in the next year. The stake in Inter RAO is being sold below market value, which, according to current quotations, is about 29 billion rubles. The shares can be purchased from structures affiliated to Inter RAO, suggest the interlocutors of Kommersant.

Rosseti, which is about to join the Federal Grid Company, could refuse to pay dividends for 2022 (the state holds 80.72% of the shares) to fill the gap in financing the construction of electricity grids for the Eastern Polygon in 2023 . The company will also receive additional funds by selling its 8.57% stake in Inter RAO. According to Kommersant’s sources, a representative of the Ministry of Energy announced this at a meeting of the government commission on the implementation of projects for the development of railway infrastructure of Siberia and the Far East on December 27.

Rosseti, faced with a shortage of investment programs, is building new substations and backbone networks to expand the carrying capacity of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway to 182 million tonnes by 2024. In total, the state holding has been contracted to build 25 power plants. Rosseti head Andrey Ryumin estimated the cost of building a power transmission line for the second phase of the Eastern Test Site at 250 billion rubles. Measures for further growth of tariffs, budget money and NWF funds were considered as sources of financing; no decision has been made on any of these options.

As a representative of the Ministry of Energy said at a meeting of the government commission, the shortage of funds for the construction of a power transmission line to the Eastern Test Site until 2025 is estimated at 168 billion rubles, of which 58 billion rubles. in 2023.

To cover the deficit, the government has decided to exempt Rosseti from paying dividends for 2022, which will release around 23 billion rubles. And another 23 billion rubles. the value of the Inter RAO shares owned by Rosseti is estimated, the official noted. In 2023, Rosseti intends to allocate 10 billion rubles for the construction of power grids for the first phase of the development of the Eastern Test Site and 51 billion rubles for the second phase.

The market value of FGC’s stake in Inter RAO is 29 billion rubles, in recent years the Ministry of Finance has insisted on its sale. The buyer of the package is unknown. Last time, when FGC sold part of its stake in Inter RAO, the shares were bought by the production company itself.

FGC received a 20% stake in Inter RAO in the course of a “large” further issue of the company, carried out to consolidate assets in 2011. Then Rosatom (13.4%), VEB (5.4%), RusHydro ( 5.3%) and Gazprom (2%), as well as state-owned state energy resources, also received shares of the Federal Property Management Agency of Inter RAO. Norilsk Nickel became the largest private shareholder with 14.2%. In 2012, President Vladimir Putin allowed Rosneftegaz to invest in state-owned fuel and energy companies, after which in 2013 the holding company consolidated the shares of the Federal Property Management Agency and Rosatom into Inter RAO.

Other shareholders began gradually selling their shares. The last time major changes in Inter RAO’s shareholder composition occurred in 2018, when FGC got rid of 10% of its shares and sold the entire stake to RusHydro.

Now control over Inter RAO is distributed between Inter RAO Capital (an Inter RAO structure, owns 29.56%) and Rosneftegaz (owns 27.63%). The boards of directors of Rosneftegaz and Inter RAO are headed by Igor Sechin.

Rosseti has already refused to pay dividends for 2021 due to the high costs of the Eastern Polygon. Rosseti head Andrey Ryumin said the issue of dividend payments for 2022 would be discussed in 2023 after the merger of FGC and Rosseti.

Rosseti told Kommersant that he could not confirm information on the sale of the stake in Inter RAO. “To sell Inter RAO shares, a directive from the Russian government is needed. We have no information that consideration of that directive has been initiated by anyone or that materials are being prepared for its consideration,” they said, adding that the dividend proposals will be considered in April-May 2023. Inter RAO said it would not comment on the shareholder’s actions, without answering the question of whether the company will buy back its shares from FGC.The energy ministry did not respond to Kommersant.

The main contenders for the package in the current conditions are the companies affiliated with Inter RAO, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market. However, such a purchase by Rosneftegaz or Inter RAO would increase their stakes above the 30% threshold and require a mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders at a price not lower than the transaction price or the weighted average market price at six months. This was the reason why the entire stake in FGC was not sold in 2018.

For Rosseti, the deal is generally neutral: while maintaining Inter RAO’s dividend policy (paying 25% of net profit), there are no prospects for a significant increase in the company’s value, believes Kommersant’s source.

Rosseti’s refusal to pay dividends looks more dangerous to shareholder value: the decision can hardly be called a one-off, given the long-term nature of the investments for which it was made. The decision to waive dividends seems reasonable from the point of view of the state, which will benefit all consumers in the country, but will have to pay the shareholders of FGC, he concludes.

Tatyana Dyatel, Natalia Skorlygina