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Russia ready to pay $2.5 billion for government’s stake in Beltranshaz

Russia is ready to buy the Belarusian government’s 50-percent stake in the Beltranshaz gas transport company for $2.5 billion, Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich told reporters on May 20.

The deal would mean that Russia would wholly own the Belarusian pipeline operator. Russia’s Gazprom already holds 50 percent in the company after paying $2.5 billion to the Belarusian government between 2007 and 2010.

Mr. Myasnikovich warned that the authorities would set certain conditions before selling the enterprise into Russia’s hands. “The enterprise must operate, the pipelines must be linked, transit must be secured, certain funds must go to the budget. Simultaneously, we are taking efforts to forecast prices,” the government’s BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.

Speaking about the possibility of the privatization of Belaruskali, a potash fertilizer giant in the Minsk region, the prime minister said that the company would not be sold for the time being but investors would be attracted to develop certain potash deposits.

Mr. Myasnikovich stressed that the government’s privatization program would focus on finding “efficient owners.”

“Privatization is not an end in itself, we must find an efficient owner,” he said, adding that a $1-billion loan expected to be provided to Minsk out of the Eurasian Economic Community’s Anti-Crisis Fund was not tied to any privatization deals. “It is not tied to any conditions, we are not required to sell anything,” he said.

Belarus seeks to draw direct foreign investment and create transnational corporations in the first place, the prime minister said. According to him, Belarus is in talks with Russia and Ukraine about the establishment of such corporations. //BelaPAN