Magnitogorsk not among strategic enterprises

The Magnitogorsk metal works (MMK) will be privatized this year, Yevgeny Ditrikh, deputy director of the department for property and land relations and natural resources' use of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade said Monday.

The MMK's state package accounts for 17.8% of shares.

(The MMK is one of the 20 largest steel companies of the world. It is Russia's largest metal works with a full production cycle. The MMK exports about 60% of its products.)

Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade's spokesman said that the MMK was to be sold for eight billion rubles in the fourth quarter of this year, though only if it is excluded from the list of strategic enterprises.

On Saturday, the presidential site published a list of strategic enterprises and joint-stock companies. The MMK does not feature in it.

Nor does the list include the seaport of St. Petersburg (20%), Rosgosstrakh (25%), and Transkreditbank (75%), which the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has already included in the privatization plan. Rosspirtprom, a federal state unitary enterprise, which the Agriculture Ministry has offered to privatize, is not on the list either.

At the same time, the strategic list features a series of other facilities to be privatized. The president included Svyazinvest (75%), Aeroflot (51.2%), Domodedovo Airlines (50%), Krasnoyarsk Airlines (51%), the Tuapse seaport (25%), the Murmansk seaport (25.5%), and also the Novorossiisk Sea Navigation (50%).

Selling these state packages requires a separate decision of the head of state, Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the president's expert department, said after the decree was published.