ALROSA President against sale of state stake

Vladimir Kalitin, President of the Russian diamond giant ALROSA, does notsupport the initiative to sell the state stake in this diamond company. Hereported in an interview with RBC that, according to Russian legislation,ALROSA should become a public company but this would happen no earlier thanin a year or a year and a half. "We should not hurry with this," Kalitinwas quoted as saying. He predicted that after ALROSA was turned into apublic company, the government was not likely to sell the whole 32-percentstake in it. The government will probably sell no more than 10-15 percentof shares in the diamond company.ALROSA accounts for 98 percent of all diamonds produces in Russia and theRussian Cabinet will not withdraw from the participation in this company.Authorities of Yakutia, a diamond-rich area of Russia, who own a 32-percentstake in ALROSA, announced earlier they were not going to sell theirstake.President Vladimir Putin is expected to sign a decree on the liberalizationof the domestic diamond market. This will enable the diamond giant to sellup to 20 percent of uncut diamonds on the market..

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