OREANDA-NEWS. On December 04, 2007 RAO "UES of Russia" held the "third phase" public auctions to sell its stakes in OAO "Perm Energy Retail Company" and OAO "Kirovenergosbyt", reported the press-centre of RAO "UES of Russia".

The auctions were arranged by OAO "Urals Energy Management Company", an Accredited Agent of RAO "UES of Russia", in accordance with the applicable Russian laws and pursuant to the resolutions taken by the RAO UES Board of Directors on 31 August 2007.

The start prices for the shareholdings in the ERCs equal to the market value determined based on the report prepared by a consortium of independent appraisers were as follows:

49 percent stake in OAO "Perm Energy Retail Company": RUB875 million.

48,17 percent stake in OAO "Kirovenergosbyt": RUB300 million.

In order to improve efficiency of the retail assets divestiture, RAO "UES of Russia" has altered the procedure for holding the third series of auctions to sell its energy retail companies' shares. Unlike the first and second serious of auctions, the third series of auctions use a sealed bidding procedure. During an auction, the bidders are to submit their bids, which must not be lower that the reserve price, in sealed envelopes to the Auction Commission. The envelopes will be opened by members of the Auction Commission in the presence of all auction participants. The shares will be sold to the highest bidder.

Auction Results:
The 49 percent stake in OAO "Perm Retail Company" was purchased by OOO "Tsentr Nadyozhnosti", which offered the highest price for the shares, RUB1,257 million. The auction price was nearly by 1,5 times higher than the auction start price. There were four bidders for the stake in Perm Energy Retail Company.

The 48,1 percent stake in OAO "Kirovenergosbyt" was purchased by OOO "Tsentr Region Invest", which offered the highest price for the shares, RUB302,2 million, which is RUB2 million higher than the auction start price. There were three bidders for the Kirovenergosbyt stake.

RAO "UES of Russia" raised RUB3,746 million through the public auctions to sell its stakes in ERCs though it planned to raise RUB3,415 billion. The plan of the third series of public auctions has been exceeded by RUB331 million.

Besides, RAO "UES of Russia" raised RUB747,5 million through the sale of two ERCs which had not previously been sold through public auctions.