Billionaire Fridman’s
LetterOne Buys RWE Unit for $7.1 Billion
LetterOne Energy, the investment vehicle of Russia’s fourth-richest man
Mikhail Fridman,
agreed to buy RWE AG’s Dea oil and gas unit, gaining assets in the U.K.,
Germany and the North Sea.
The sale values Dea at about 5.1 billion euros ($7.1 billion), including debt,
Germany’s largest power generator said in a statement yesterday.
The deal is the
first for LetterOne, the group set up by Fridman, 49, and co-investor German
Khan last year to invest part of $14 billion they gained from selling a stake in
the Moscow-based TNK-BP oil venture.
AARの株主
Alfa Group ロシアの新興財閥で、ロシア最大の金融産業コングロマリットのひとつ。
Mikhail Fridman と German Khan が50%ずつ保有。Access Industries ロシア生まれの Len Blavatnik が設立し所有する米国の投資会社で、Basellを買収した。 Renova Holding ロシアの長者番付では第5位のViktor Feliksovich Vekselberg （SUALの大株主）のベンチャーキャピタル。
Alfa-Access-RenovaはJVの50%を280億ドルでRosneftに譲渡
The agreement helps Fridman and Khan move their energy investment abroad as RWE,
which reported its first full-year loss since the foundation of the Federal
Republic of Germany in 1949, looks to raise cash from asset sales.
LetterOne has earmarked as much as $10 billion for investment in the global oil
and gas business over the next five years and attracted a number of high-profile
energy executives to its advisory board, including former BP Plc Chief
Executive Officer John Browne and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s Jim Hackett.
The transaction must still win final approval from RWE’s supervisory board and
regulators in several countries, the utility said. Dea pumps oil and gas in the
U.K., Germany and Norway and is “no longer” of strategic importance, RWE CEO
Peter Terium said in April last year.
Political Turmoil
Germany’s slumping power prices led to billions of euros in writedowns for RWE,
which like other European utilities, is selling assets to reduce debt. RWE’s
closest rival EON SE has sold about 20 billion euros of assets.
The sale concludes a quest to sell energy assets that took more than two years.
An earlier plan to sell Dea assets in Egypt stalled amid the political turmoil
that followed the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, people familiar with
the matter said at the time.
RWE had sought to raise as much as 5 billion euros from selling Dea, a person
familiar with the matter said last year.
Fridman, a Russian citizen with a fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $14.5
billion, ranking him at No. 65 globally, pooled more than $29 billion of assets
in Luxembourg-based LetterOne last year, including his investments in Russian
carrier VimpelCom Ltd. and Turkey’s biggest mobile-phone operator Turkcell
Iletisim Hizmetleri AS.
Alfa Growth
The Russian billionaire co-founded one of Russia’s biggest private consortiums,
Alfa Group, in 1989. Rising from scalping theater tickets as a student, Fridman
led Alfa’s growth into an empire that now spans banks in at least four
countries, asset management, an insurance company, and food retail.
After a decade of jointly developing Russian oil producer TNK-BP with the U.K.’s
BP, Fridman, Khan and other partners sold the company to state-run OAO Rosneft
in a $55 billion deal. The purchase made Rosneft the world’s largest traded oil
producer by volume.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, who formerly served as deputy prime minister in
Vladimir Putin’s cabinet, is among a list of Russians that may face European
Union and U.S. sanctions, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported March 14, citing
people in Washington and Brussels it didn’t identify.
Putin, who was elected president in 2012 for a third time after serving as prime
minister in the previous five years, has clashed with the U.S. and the European
Union over the political upheaval in Ukraine.
Source: RWE Dea AG via Bloomberg
RWE Dea AG's Mittelplate oil drilling and production island is seen in the...
Read More
RWE rose 1.3 percent to 28.835 euros by the close in Frankfurt.
Political Turmoil
Germany’s slumping power prices led to billions of euros in writedowns for RWE,
which like other European utilities, is selling assets to reduce debt. RWE’s
closest rival EON SE (EOAN) has sold about 20 billion euros of assets.
The sale concludes a quest to sell energy assets that took more than two years.
An earlier plan to sell Dea assets in Egypt stalled amid the political turmoil
that followed the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, people familiar with
the matter said at the time.
RWE had sought to raise as much as 5 billion euros from selling Dea, a person
familiar with the matter said last year.
Fridman, a Russian citizen with a fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $14.5
billion, ranking him at No. 65 globally, pooled more than $29 billion of assets
in Luxembourg-based LetterOne last year, including his investments in Russian
carrier VimpelCom Ltd. and Turkey’s biggest mobile-phone operator Turkcell
Iletisim Hizmetleri AS. (TCELL)
Alfa Growth
The Russian billionaire co-founded one of Russia’s biggest private consortiums,
Alfa Group, in 1989. Rising from scalping theater tickets as a student, Fridman
led Alfa’s growth into an empire that now spans banks in at least four
countries, asset management, an insurance company, and food retail.
Source: RWE Dea AG via Bloomberg
RWE Dea AG's Breagh Alfa gas platform is seen in the Breagh offshore gas field
in the... Read More
After a decade of jointly developing Russian oil producer TNK-BP with the U.K.’s
BP, Fridman, Khan and other partners sold the company to state-run OAO Rosneft (ROSN)
in a $55 billion deal. The purchase made Rosneft the world’s largest traded oil
producer by volume.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, who formerly served as deputy prime minister in
Vladimir Putin’s cabinet, is among a list of Russians that may face European
Union and U.S. sanctions, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported March 14, citing
people in Washington and Brussels it didn’t identify.
Putin, who was elected president in 2012 for a third time after serving as prime
minister in the previous five years, has clashed with the U.S. and the European
Union over the political upheaval in Ukraine.