Check out this new player on the global oil and gas scene: The former owners of TNK-BP and the Alfa Group, are looking for somewhere to put the $14 billion they made on the sale of TNK-BP Russian venture last year.
They’re shopping around right now in full force, and they’ve got their eyes on the oil industry in a big—global—way. Behind this are Mikhail Fridman and German Khan of the Alfa Group.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Stan Polovets--CEO of the Alfa-Access-Renova Consortium that own TNK-BP along with the BP Plc—the new team is in the process of creating a new global oil and gas investment company, which will also dabble (heavily) in telecommunications. Alfa owns VimpelCom Ltd (VIP), which has merged with Italy’s Wind Telecom SpA.
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Right now, they’re looking for investment opportunities, but not interested in any more shareholders.
Last year, TNK-BP sold out to Russian state-run OAO Rosneft for $28 billion. The Alfa-Access-Renova Consortium got $14 billion, while BP got $12.3 billion and an 18.5% stake in Rosneft. The deal should be finalized later this month or early next.
The Alfa Group is Russia’s largest privately owned investment firm right now, and the new oil-gas-telecoms enterprise could be launched as early as May. It doesn’t have a name yet, but officers are being set up in Moscow and London, and investments will span Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), North America, South America, Africa and Asia.
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
