Sinopec buys into SIBUR during Putin state visit
Tom Brown
03-Sep-2015
(updates throughout)
LONDON (ICIS)–China state energy and chemicals major Sinopec
has agreed to acquire a stake in SIBUR during a state visit
to China by Russian premier Vladimir Putin, the
petrochemicals producer said on Thursday.
Subject to approvals by regulators on both sides, the stake
represents a tightening of the bond between Russia and China,
SIBUR said.
A SIBUR spokesperson declined to disclose the size of the
stake or the scale of investment, but stated that SIBUR
chairman Leonid Mikhelson will remain the group’s largest
stakeholder.
Prior to the Sinopec deal, SIBUR was 50.2%-owned by
Mikhelson, and 21.3%-held by deputy management board chairman
Kirill Shamalov, who acquired a 17% stake in the business from
Gennady Timchenko when the Novatek non-executive director’s
name was added to the US’s list of key non-governmental
Russian sanction targets in September 2014.
Timchenko retained a 15.3% interest in the company, with the
remaining 13.2% held by current and former managers of SIBUR
Holding.
“The Chinese market is one of the key… markets for
SIBUR where the Company exports polymers, rubbers and organic
synthesis products. In 2014, SIBUR’s revenue from sales in
China totalled 8% of its total revenue,” the spokesperson
said.
SIBUR and Sinopec agreed a joint venture deal in May 2014 to
develop a 50,000 tonne/year butadiene nitrile rubber (NBR)
plant near Shanghai, following Sinopec taking a 25% + one
share stake in SIBUR’s Krasnoyarsk, Russia, NBR plant
in August 2013.
“SIBUR’s vertically-integrated upstream and
petrochemicals business model is highly complementary with
Sinopec’s businesses. This transaction is in line with our
objective to strategically expand our petrochemical business
overseas,” said Sinopec chairman Wang Yupu.
“Our continued partnership will help diversify and secure
Sinopec’s long-term sourcing of petrochemical products,” he
added.
“We are excited to have Sinopec as our strategic
shareholder, whose participation will reinforce SIBUR’s
expertise to maximize the efficiency of new large-scale
projects and raise the company to a new level,” Mikhelson
said.
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