RAO UES chief on investments - 8 April, 2003

Russian stockholders have invested about $1.5bn in shares of RAO UES and its subsidiaries over the past 6 months, RAO UES head Anatoly Chubais declared at a forum today. According to him, some $700m were spent on purchasing about 10 percent of shares in RAO UES and about $800m on buying shares in RAO UES subsidiaries. The number of holders of blocking stakes in energy companies increased from 8 in June 2002 to 40 in March 2003.

Chubais stressed that new shareholders were Russian entrepreneurs. "Our foreign stockholders have not invested a ruble in RAO UES; the exception is the Finnish company Fortum, which increased its stake in Lenenergo by buying shares from E.ON Energie", Chubais said. He added that RAO UES had 632,000 employees in 2002 and specified that their number would considerably change in the process of the sector's restructuring.