The privatisation of Russian maritime company Sovcomflot is scheduled for March-April 2017 and the government hopes to raise RUB30bn (€470mn) from the sale of a 25% minus one share stake, according to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev.
Earlier, Minister of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Oreshkin said Sovcomflot is a prime candidate for privatisation this year.
Privatisation remains a major source of funding for the Russian budget in 2017 after the value of the Reserve Fund fell from about €47bn at the end of 2015 to €15.3bn (RUB972bn) at the end of 2016. The government hopes to raise up to RUB1 trillion from privatisations this year.
However, there have been indications that the privatisation of large state-controlled companies could become a lesser priority under Oreshkin, who replaced economy minister Alexey Ulyukaev after his arrest in November on bribery charges during the privatisation of a controlling stake in the Bashneft oil company.
"If you simply privatise a large state-owned company that dominates a particular market, you won't improve the competition situation and there won’t be a significant positive impact on growth," Oreshkin said in an interview with the Financial Times earlier in January.
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