Putin allowed the American fund to sell shares of Rosneft and Gazprom

Russian President Vladimir Putin has allowed the American Goldman Sachs International to sell shares of nine major Russian companies. Among them are Gazprom and Rosneft.

Vladimir Putin signed an order authorizing the investment company Balchug Capital, headquartered in Armenia, to buy back shares of Russian companies from the American investment bank Goldman Sachs International.

The company from the USA will sell more than 43 million ordinary shares of Inter RAO, more than 28 million ordinary shares of Gazprom, about 2 million ordinary shares of Rostelecom, more than 1 million ordinary shares of Rosneft, more than 772 thousand ordinary shares of Novatek, more than 278 thousand ordinary and 16 million preferred shares."Surgutneftegaz, more than 235 thousand ordinary shares of Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine, more than 171 thousand ordinary shares of Tatneft and more than 109 thousand ordinary shares of Lukoil.

No other permits and approvals are required for transactions, the order of the head of state says.

Earlier, in August 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on special economic measures in the fields of finance and fuel and energy due to the actions of unfriendly countries and organizations, and permits are required for such transactions.

"The total value of the shares of fuel and energy companies owned by Goldman Sachs is approximately 7.2 billion rubles at current quotations," InfoTEK calculated in the telegram channel.

They noted that 3.9 billion rubles fall on Gazprom shares, 920 million rubles — on Novatek shares, 885 million rubles — on Surgutneftegaz prefs, 750 million rubles — on Lukoil shares: "Another 158 million rubles — on Rostelecom and NLMK".

The issuance of the permit is associated with negotiations between Russia and the United States to end the Ukrainian conflict and restore relations between the countries.

The experts interviewed by RBC suggested that the order could launch the exchange of shares of Russian companies owned by non-residents and which are now frozen on type C accounts as part of counter-sanctions for blocked securities abroad.