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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev confirmed the government's plans to privatize state stakes in Bashneft and Rosneft in 2016. As reported by RIA Novosti, the head of government announced this during a meeting with Russian businessmen within the framework of the international investment forum Sochi-2016. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on the sidelines of the investment forum that the government does not intend to limit Rosneft’s participation in bidding for Bashneft.

“It is obvious that the general course to support business, to develop private business, to protect private property must, without any doubt, be continued and supported by specific decisions of the state, including, but not limited to, decisions, for example, on privatization. And we will do this , including this year, including for a number of fairly large, large blocks of shares, for example, such as Rosneft and Bashneft. So keep this in mind,” Medvedev said in his speech.

Representative of the Ministry of Economic Development Elena Lashkina told RBC that both companies are in the privatization plan for 2016.

Earlier on Friday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters that the Russian Ministry of Finance, in amendments to the 2016 federal budget, takes into account the privatization of part of the Bashneft and Rosneft stakes by the end of the year. “Yes, this year we are targeting Rosneft and Bashneft,” he said (quoted by Interfax). The deficit this year, according to him, may increase to 3.5-3.7% of GDP, his the size, in particular, will depend on the structure of the Bashneft transaction.

In mid-July, Dmitry Medvedev decided to postpone the privatization of the company indefinitely, and, as his press secretary Natalya Timakova said, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported him. In August, Timakova said the privatization of Bashneft was being postponed until a later date, and government sources said the sale might not take place this year.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, in an interview with Rossiya 24 in early September, said that the authorities have not yet decided on the sequence of privatization transactions for Rosneft and Bashneft, and one of the proposals involves linking them into a single project. The media attributed this to the reluctance to escalate the struggle between the elites before the State Duma elections. Let us recall that Rosneft, which is managed by Igor Sechin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is vying to participate in the privatization of Bashneft, but a number of Russian government officials spoke out against it, saying that the sale of a stake in one state-owned company to another state-owned company cannot be called privatization.

Today Shuvalov said that the Russian government plans to gain more than a trillion rubles as a result of the privatization of these two companies. “According to the assurances we receive from investment consultants, we hope to receive funds in the amount of over a trillion rubles for both of these transactions by the end of this year,” Interfax quotes Shuvalov.

According to him, if these privatization transactions take place, they will significantly improve macroeconomic indicators, since funds from the privatization of Rosneft will be counted in the federal budget as budget revenues, and from the sale of Bashneft as a source of covering the federal budget deficit.

Shuvalov was asked a question about who is interested in the privatization of the Rosneft stake. “There is also expressed interest in the form of letters that the investment consultant and Rosneft itself received; we are now working with these companies<...>For various reasons, I can’t name (the interested companies) specifically, these are companies interested in purchasing small stakes, but in total it will be 19.5%,” Shuvalov said.

At the same time, Shuvalov noted that Rosneft will not be limited in bidding for the state-owned stake in Bashneft.

One of the main contenders for Bashneft shares, the head of LUKOIL, Vagit Alekperov, said that he does not expect the privatization of Bashneft in the near future. “I don’t think that Bashneft will be sold in the near future, because, on the one hand, the state is raising taxes, on the other hand, it wants to sell the asset at a high price,” he said at the same forum in Sochi. Vedomosti at the end of August, citing an employee of the Federal Property Management Agency and a federal official related to privatization, reported that only one large company remained in the privatization plan for 2016 - Rosneft.

Initially, it was planned that Bashneft would be sold first: the state could gain about 300 billion rubles for a controlling stake in the company. However, amid disputes about the possibility of state-controlled Rosneft participating in the deal and a number of requests from the authorities of Bashkortostan, the government postponed privatization, and Shuvalov said that now the sale of 19.5% of Rosneft comes to the fore, and after it the authorities will return to privatization "Bashneft".

The day before, Bloomberg reported that the head of Rosneft is asking for permission for his state-owned company to buy a controlling stake in PJSC Bashneft for five billion dollars - with a noticeable premium to the market. The Kremlin, commenting on this message, stated that “the president did not make any decisions on this matter.”

Rosneft's offer turned out to be at a significant premium to the current market value of Bashneft

Moscow. October 11. website - Rosneft is not wasting a minute - its latest takeover of an asset probably breaks all speed records. Just on Monday, an order was signed for Rosneft to purchase a 50.0755% stake in Bashneft, as already on Wednesday evening, a few days before the deadline set by the government, and a complete change in the company’s management was announced for Thursday.

Rosneft's extensive experience in the oil takeover market is telling - first there was YUKOS, then TNK-BP. Compared to these giants, there shouldn’t be any problems at all with the small and compact Bashneft. Interfax's interlocutors agree that this is how power should “change” - rapidly, in order to quickly enter into all the business processes of the acquired object. And this will benefit Bashneft itself - the company has been living in a state of tension since February due to uncertainty in connection with privatization. And now all the i's are dotted.

Moreover, the answers to the main questions - at the political level - in the Bashneft deal were given by President Vladimir Putin himself in September. And on Wednesday he convincingly supported the correctness of the chosen course.

Corsica on Shishkina

On Wednesday, perhaps the last intrigue around Bashneft was lifted - a change in top management, which naturally kept the company's staff in suspense both in Moscow and in Bashkiria. Although, probably, no one expected such swiftness. On Tuesday afternoon, Bashneft employees were only speculating about when the management might change, not suspecting that active work on its renewal would begin as early as Tuesday evening.

Interfax sources on Wednesday morning reported on Bashneft President Alexander Korsik, who has headed the company since the time of the “before last” shareholder - AFK Sistema, a complete change in the composition of the board and the convening of an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to elect a new board of directors. Then a company message came out with the agenda of the council meeting scheduled for October 13, on the same items. It is clear that the name of the new head of Bashneft could not remain secret for long - ANI sources reported that Andrei Shishkin, vice president of Rosneft for energy and localization, could be appointed to him.

The market did not expect that Corsik would remain in Bashneft after Rosneft entered it - even at the information level it was difficult to call him a supporter of the sale of Bashneft in favor of Rosneft. It was Korsik who actively promoted the idea of ​​SPO of his company as part of privatization and openly called LUKOIL the best contender for the state stake. At the same time, the company’s team in Corsica continued to work, despite the uncertainty growing every day: in recent years, Bashneft has shown an increase in its main indicators, and has long held a leading position in the growth rate of oil production.

Corsica's ending presidency at Bashneft lasted more than five years and survived two shareholders - first businessman Vladimir Yevtushenkov, then state ownership. Before Bashneft, Corsica’s biography included management of Sibneft, Russneft, and Itera.

He does not talk about his plans after Bashneft. “I haven’t planned anything yet,” Korsik told Interfax.

Bashneft presidential candidate Andrei Shishkin has been working at Rosneft since 2012. Initially, he held the post of vice president for energy, industrial safety, labor protection and ecology, since 2014 he became vice president for energy and localization, and since April 2015 - a member of the board of Rosneft. Before working at the largest oil company in Russia, A. Shishkin held senior positions in various financial institutions and companies in the fuel and energy sector, and was also the deputy head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.

The agency's sources also report that the board of Bashneft will be replaced entirely; after October 13, this governing body will consist exclusively of representatives of Rosneft.

The deal is closed

The deal to acquire a controlling stake in Bashneft has been completed, Rosneft announced on Wednesday evening. Rosneft transferred 329.7 billion rubles to the federal treasury account for the purchase of a controlling stake in Bashneft.

The head of the Ministry of Economic Development, Alexey Ulyukaev, said that Rosneft offered a 20.6% premium to the closing price of the auction on the day the binding offer was received for a controlling stake in Bashneft. According to him, in the process of preparing the transaction, two binding offers were received from potential buyers of shares; only Rosneft offered a price higher than the value determined by the appraiser.

Rosneft is the only company that has submitted a legally binding proposal to the consultant, VTB Capital, with a price higher than the estimate of an independent appraiser - from 297 billion to 315 billion rubles. The second company, which submitted a legally binding bid, with a slightly lower price,” the minister explained.

VTB CEO Andrei Kostin told reporters that the consulting bank considered “different scenarios,” but the price offered by Rosneft turned out to be high.

The acquisition of the state’s stake in Bashneft will not only “preserve the integrity of the assets” of the company, but also “maximize the synergistic effect from combining the assets of both companies and will support plans for the privatization of a 19.5% stake in Rosneft PJSC,” leads Ministry of Words of Ulyukaev.

“The consultant for Rosneft, Intesa Bank, argued the synergy as follows: first of all, this is refining, because already part of the crude oil produced by Rosneft is processed by Bashneft, there is an optimization of oil flows, and serious savings arise. Second An important aspect is the synergy that arises from the integrated development of fields that are now owned by Rosneft and Bashneft. They believe that there is an effect here that they estimate at 150 to 180 billion rubles. Accordingly, this increases the valuation of the asset itself “Rosneft,” Ulyukaev said.

Putin is surprised, but confident

Vladimir Putin, commenting on the topic of privatization during the VTB Capital investment forum “Russia Calling!”, said that he was surprised by the government’s decision to sell Bashneft to Rosneft, thereby hinting at a grueling discussion about the right of a state-owned company to purchase an asset from the state.

“It may seem strange to you, I myself was surprised by this position of the government. But this is really the position of the government - first of all, its financial and economic bloc,” he said.

The surprise of the Russian President can be understood: first, the privatization of Bashneft was launched, which was announced as the deal of the year in the oil industry, the flagship of open sales and a guarantee of a huge amount coming to the budget. But then the question arose: could a “company with state participation,” which is Rosneft, take part in this privatization. And then the movement stalled, its participants became bewildered, frozen in incomprehension, as a result, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was forced to postpone the Bashneft deal indefinitely.

Dmitry Medvedev also launched the process of privatization of Bashneft again - only now the wheel was turning in a specific direction, and it became clear to everyone that there was only one participant in the movement. This is Rosneft, whose 19.5% stake is also being prepared for privatization, and which is considering the possibility of purchasing its shares too.

On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin gave a comprehensive explanation of this: the price of the privatized stake in Rosneft will increase after the acquisition of Bashneft. He recalled that Rosneft offered the highest price for Bashneft - 330 billion rubles. “This is slightly higher than the estimates made by independent international experts. She offered a price above the market,” the president said.

Pre-sale preparation of Bashneft

In October 2014, Bashneft, whose controlling stake had belonged to AFK Sistema since 2009, became the property of the state by court decision. The court decided that the shares of the Bashkir fuel and energy complex companies in the 1990s were illegally assigned to regional ownership, and therefore all subsequent transactions with them were void.

On May 17, 2016, it was announced that President Vladimir Putin signed the exclusion of 50% plus one share of PJSC Bashneft from the list of strategic enterprises. Thus, the state-owned stake in Bashneft became available for privatization. Active preparations for the privatization of Bashneft began in mid-July, but at the end of August the sale of the company, which was supposed to be one of the main privatization transactions of the year, was unexpectedly sold for an indefinite period.

One of the possible reasons for postponing the sale of the state stake was the government's reluctance to sell the asset on a low market. In addition, the head of Bashkortostan, Rustem Khamitov, is an active opponent of the sale of the state's share in Bashneft (Bashkortostan owns 25% of Bashneft) - there was talk of a possible abandonment of his own brand.

In August, the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, asked the government to allow the company he managed to acquire control in Bashneft for $5 billion at a premium to the market.

Rosneft's competitors

As Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev, Rosneft is the only company that has made a legally binding offer to purchase Bashneft shares at a price higher than the value determined by the appraiser. According to an independent assessment by Ernst & Young, the state stake in Bashneft in August was valued in the range from 297 billion to 315 billion rubles.

Funds from the sale of the stake should go to the budget this year. “You know that these revenues are one way or another taken into account when forming the revenue base of our country’s budget for the current year. We recently discussed measures to consolidate the budget and mobilize additional revenues. Including as part of this work, a decision was made to sell controlling stake in the joint-stock company Bashneft, -

» reported that it completed the purchase of the state stake in Bashneft: 329.7 billion rubles. transferred to the Federal Treasury. During the preparation of the transaction, two legally binding proposals were received, said Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev; Rosneft made the best price.

“I myself was a little surprised,” President Vladimir Putin commented on the deal and assured that this was the government’s decision. “There were other companies worth buying” Bashneft", Putin continued. “The government will support them, including by providing them with licenses to expand their activities.” Bashkiria (it has a blocking stake in Bashneft) will retain influence on Bashneft, Putin promised.

There were nine contenders for Bashneft; officials called the main one “ Lukoil" “The president’s words also relate to negotiations on Lukoil’s access to the shelf,” explains a senior official. “But we are talking about the usual work of the authorities with a private company, no preferences.”

Rosneft does not plan to leave any of the current managers of Bashneft, as follows from the proposals to the board of directors - it will be held today, October 13. The list of candidates was reported by a person familiar with Rosneft's proposal and confirmed by a person who saw the proposal. The chairman of the board will be Andrei Shishkin, Rosneft's vice president for energy, former deputy minister of energy, Vedomosti's interlocutors said, one of them knows that Shishkin will have a five-year contract.

The list consists entirely of Rosneft employees: Vice President for Legal Support Natalia Mincheva, Director of the Human Resources Department Andrey Sudakov, Vice President, Chief Geologist Andrey Lazeev, First Deputy Head of Trading Direction Denis Nyrkov, Director of the Planning and Reporting Department Rostislav Latysh, as well as Financial Director “Iters” Sergei Lobachev, Vedomosti’s interlocutors list.

Bashneft is also convening an extraordinary meeting on December 16 to elect a new board of directors, one of Vedomosti’s interlocutors knows. There have been no announcements at Bashneft yet - everyone is just packing up their things, says a company employee. Representatives of Bashneft and Rosneft declined to comment. The Chairman of the Board of Bashneft, Alexander Korsik, did the same.

The former top manager of a large oil company is surprised by such a quick and total change of management. At least transfer the business, he is perplexed and calls the current Bashneft team one of the best on the market. Korsik enjoyed great authority, understood the importance of working with investors, always had an independent point of view and defended it, says the analyst “ Sberbank CIB" Valery Nesterov.

The change in management will increase investor nervousness and the mood to sell: no one knows how the new management of Bashneft will behave, says an employee of one of the banks. On Wednesday, Bashneft’s ordinary shares on the Moscow Exchange rose by 1.3% to RUB 3,125, but have lost 1.4% since October 7, when Rosneft received a directive to purchase the state stake.

The dismissal of the team the day after the transaction does not look strange: usually such steps are agreed upon before the transaction, say Sergei Patrakeev, partner at the Lidings law firm, and Victoria Petrova, chairman of the People People expert council, but admit that there have been no such cases in their practice.

Dismissal in one day on such a scale is possible only by agreement of the parties, Patrakeev continues, employees and the general director can have “golden parachutes.” It is unlikely that Corsica and other members of the board have significant “parachutes” - everyone knows the negative attitude of the state towards such payments, and Bashneft has been a state-owned company for two years now, says Artur Shamilov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Top Contact. Bashneft managers refused to discuss payments; one of them said that they would leave the decision to the discretion of the new shareholder.

Shishkin is 57 years old and until 1992, according to Forbes, he was a KGB officer. Until 2005, he worked in banks and energy companies, in 2005 he became the general director of TGK-10 (now Fortum), in 2008 - the first vice president of IES Holding (" T plus"Renova Group"), since 2010 - Deputy Minister, since 2012 - at Rosneft. As of June 30, Shishkin owned 0.0036% of Rosneft shares. On the Moscow Exchange, such a package costs 139.6 million rubles.

Shishkin is an ambitious person who likes to be in the center of events, his former colleagues say. Shishkin always tried to find prestigious positions, recalls one of them, for example, he had long hoped to head the board “ RusHydro" He has an excellent relationship with the chief executive officer of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, he is 100% Sechin’s man: as a deputy minister, Shishkin coordinated with him, the then deputy prime minister, all politically important letters, say two other acquaintances of top managers. Shishkin is the type of subordinate that Sechin really likes: he adapts well to his boss, knows how to correctly present his successes, and often looks for blame among others, including his predecessors, says one of them. A good leader, tough, when he was deputy minister, all companies walked on a string, recalls another acquaintance of Shishkin. Most of all, Shishkin was remembered in the energy sector for pushing for the signing of power supply agreements - a key mechanism for updating generation during the reform of RAO UES.

Negotiations with a real strategic investor are a long process: you need to discuss the price, management, and many other conditions, and the budget needs money now, says Raiffeisenbank analyst Andrey Polishchuk. Strategically, he believes, the Chinese are ready to buy a stake in Rosneft and the company, having bought its shares, will negotiate with them and other investors. There should be no problems with the withdrawal of money from Rosneftegaz to the budget - the government proceeds from this scheme, and Rosneftegaz does not protest, he concludes.

How the owner of Bashneft changed

In August 2005, when AFK Sistema became the owner of a blocking stake in Bashneft, its leaders emphasized that the investments were solely of a portfolio nature and the shares could be sold in a few years. In particular, Sistema vice-president Levan Vasadze indicated that the company would like to receive 75% of Bashkir Capital, which also controlled Bashneft, and after 1.5-2 years the shares could be sold. Rosneft and Gazprom were then called one of the most likely contenders for Bashkir oil assets, and the company itself confirmed their interest in them. In July 2006, Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov said: “We are looking at the Bashkir refineries, they are even better than the assets of YUKOS.”

In June 2013, the Vedomosti newspaper, citing its own sources, reported the interest of Rosneft (then in the process of integration with TNK-BP) in purchasing Bashneft. The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, called the issue of buying Bashneft “interesting”, but said that it was not being discussed.

In July 2013, the main shareholder of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, told Bloomberg that Bashneft could indeed be sold to a strategic partner or its shares could be placed on the market.

In August 2013, TASS reported that Sistema plans to sell Bashneft by the end of the year and exit the oil business. The most likely buyer of the oil company, the agency's sources called the Independent Oil and Gas Company (NOC), controlled by the ex-president of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov. However, Bashneft President Alexander Korsik said that Yevtushenkov is not thinking about selling the company. Sistema President Mikhail Shamolin told Vedomosti that the company intends to independently develop this asset and may hold an IPO in 2014-2015.

In March 2014, Bashneft bought Oleg Burlakov’s Tyumen oil company Burneftegaz for $1 billion, which was also claimed by Gazprom Neft and Rosneft.

In July 2014, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested the controlling stake in Bashneft owned by Sistema in a criminal case regarding the privatization of the oil company. The chairman of the board of directors and the main shareholder of Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was summoned for questioning, and he himself regarded what was happening as a raider takeover.

In September 2014, Igor Sechin stated that Rosneft had never considered purchasing shares of OJSC Bashneft due to “skeletons in the closet” and the risks of privatizing this asset.

In October 2014, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled to reclaim 81.67% of Bashneft shares as state property, and in December Sistema transferred these shares to the Federal Property Management Agency.

In October 2015, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy Alexey Teksler, who headed the board of directors of Bashneft, stated that at that time there were no plans for an SPO, but “the management was given the task of always being ready for privatization.” And in July 2016, Rosneft announced that it had received an offer from government consultant VTB Capital to purchase a 50.1% stake in Bashneft during privatization.

The government received two binding proposals from bidders for Bashneft, Ulyukaev said. “The best is higher than the value of the appraiser (from 297 billion to 315 billion rubles - RBC) — was done only by Rosneft PJSC,” Ulyukaev said. According to him, Rosneft’s price offer turned out to be at a significant premium to the current market value of shares: 20.6% to the closing price of trading on September 30 (the day the binding offer was received). The head of the Ministry of Economic Development did not name the second contender, noting only that his application suggested “a slightly lower price.”

According to Ulyukaev, the sale of the state stake in Rosneft will preserve the integrity of Bashneft’s assets and support plans to privatize a 19.5% stake in Rosneft itself.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the deal with Rosneft, which offered the highest price for Bashneft shares, would be beneficial for the country's budget. “This is a neat privatization, keeping in mind the synergistic effect and obtaining the maximum benefit from the point of view of budgetary fiscal interests,” the head of state said at the “Russia Calling!” forum.

On October 10, it became known that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order on the direct sale of 50.08% of Bashneft shares to Rosneft for 329.69 billion rubles. The government directive stipulated that state representatives on the board of directors of Rosneft must instruct the head of the company, Igor Sechin, to sign the purchase and sale agreement by October 15.

Apparently, the deal will take place without an auction: Rosneft’s competitors also wanted to buy this asset, but will not be able to do so. Now the state is the main shareholder of both Rosneft and Bashneft, so it is difficult not to see signs of a non-market transaction in the sale. But this is not the main problem.

The state acquired a controlling stake in Bashneft under dubious circumstances. From 2009 to 2014 it was owned by AFK Sistema. Almost immediately after Sistema announced that it was ready to conduct a public offering of Bashneft shares, its main owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov was put under house arrest on suspicion of legalizing property (specifically Bashneft) obtained by criminal means.

In October 2014, the court decided that Sistema should return Bashneft to the state due to the illegal privatization of the company in the second half of the 1990s. “Sistema” did not challenge the court’s decision, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov was released from house arrest. Soon the case against the billionaire was closed due to the lack of corpus delicti.

The state, which received Bashneft for free, immediately announced that it intended to get rid of the asset. Privatization was supposed to take place before 2016. According to the law on privatization (Article 5), state-owned companies, that is, legal entities in which more than 25% belongs to the state, cannot participate in it - without additional decrees from the president. If we follow the spirit of the law, Rosneft cannot participate in privatization; however, the controlling stake in Rosneft does not belong to the state directly, but through an intermediary company, the Rosneftegaz company. This allowed Rosneft, led by Igor Sechin, to participate in privatization.

Several players are interested in privatizing Bashneft, including Lukoil, the largest private oil company in Russia. At the last moment, the government postponed privatization indefinitely, and in October 2016, the business media (Interfax, Kommersant, Vedomosti and others) learned from anonymous sources that there would be no bidding at all - the company would be given away without a competition "Rosneft". On October 6, the government, as a shareholder of Rosneft, officially approved its participation in the potential deal.

Why might this be good?

According to Rosneft’s calculations, there will be synergy from the merger of companies, which will increase the capitalization of Rosneft itself. Consequently, with the potential privatization of Rosneft, the state will receive more money. In addition, Rosneft allegedly offers an amount that other market participants cannot offer - this will help the Russian budget cope with the deficit.

Why might this be bad?

The transaction is carried out using a non-market method. Even if we imagine that Rosneft’s participation in the privatization of Bashneft is normal, it is not clear why they abandoned the competition. The closed deal raises suspicions that have not yet been dispelled by anyone of collusion - and reluctance to allow Rosneft's competitors into the competition.

However, the official decision to sell Bashneft without a tender has not yet been made - given how the situation around the asset is changing, it is possible that a tender will still be held.

Why is this still bad?

The deal is reminiscent of Rosneft's purchase of Yukos' main assets. After the bankruptcy of YUKOS, its main assets went to Rosneft. Formally, the transactions were different - then an auction took place, now - not; then YUKOS was not transferred to the state balance sheet, but was sold in parts due to demands from tax authorities and other creditors. However, shortly before both transactions, the main shareholders were arrested; in both cases, a cunning scheme was invented for the participation of a state-owned company in the auction (during the sale of YUKOS, the assets were bought by the unknown Baikalfinansgroup, which was later bought by Rosneft).

The deal undermines the government's authority. And not just governments. “It was decided not to allow state-controlled companies to participate in privatization, and we are talking about both direct and indirect control,” Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said in July. “It’s stupid that one state-owned company buys another state-owned company. This is not privatization,” presidential aide Andrei Belousov echoed him. It turns out that their words mean nothing, but that’s not even the worst thing. Government officials, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, repeat year after year that the Russian economy needs to reduce government participation; as soon as it comes down to it, it turns out that these are just words.

The deal worsens the investment climate. For any investor planning to invest money in the Russian economy, the Bashneft deal means that the state, with the help of investigative authorities and the court, can at any time take away the asset and - after some time - transfer (sell) it to a state-owned company, to which this asset is subject to payment. - reasons why I liked it.

The deal will monopolize the Russian oil market. In 2015, Russia produced 534 million tons of oil. Rosneft's share amounted to 189 million tons. If we add the result of Bashneft to its indicators, we get almost 210 million tons. Rosneft's main competitor, Lukoil, has 85.6 million tons. This was not always the case: over the past decade and a half, state-owned Rosneft has grown mainly through the acquisition of private assets - first Yuganskneftegaz, then TNK-BP, now Bashneft.