Gazprom capitalization should be doubled - 18 March, 2003

Gazprom top managers practically are not busy with the company's capitalization, while it should be doubled, Boris Fyodorov, the member of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, said in an interview with RBC. He pointed out that if Gazprom managed to decrease the total amount of long-term debts by the promised $4bn in 2003, prolong terms and reduce the cost of their servicing, it would be a pretty good achievement.

According to him, some minority shareholders are not satisfied with Gazprom's large expenses on charity activities and advertising.

Fyodorov believes that Gazprom should use every legal method to decrease the tax burden.

As reported earlier, Gazprom executives declared they were going to cut long-term debts in 2003 from $14.7bn to $10.8bn. The current capitalization of the gas giant is from $7bn to $12bn, according to different estimations.