OREANDA-NEWS.  January 19, 2012. The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Viktor Vekselberg, Chairman of the Renova Group Board of Directors. The parties confirmed the intent to complete the merger of the power assets owned by both companies and agreed to extend till the end of the first quarter of 2012 the relevant Agreement of Intent signed in July 2011.

The parties pointed out the intense efforts taken by experts from Gazprom and Renova Group as well as by third-party consultants within the Agreement of Intent stipulating the power assets merger on the platform of Gazprom energoholding. In particular, the parties promised to shortly coordinate their strategies including the appropriate steps for submitting a new request to anti-monopoly authorities instead of the one revoked by the parties in late December.

The meeting also discussed other areas of cooperation between Gazprom and Renova Group.
Background

In July 2011 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Viktor Vekselberg, Chairman of the Renova Group Board of Directors signed the Agreement of Intent.

The Agreement confirms the parties' intents to merge their power assets on the platform of Gazprom energoholding and transform the merged Company into an open joint stock company that could subsequently be listed on a stock exchange.

The target capital structure of the merged Company stipulates that Gazprom will receive up to 75 per cent less one share and Renova – at least 25 per cent plus one share.

It is projected that the merged Company will manage the key power generation and power distribution assets owned by both parties. In the process of the Shareholders Agreement elaboration the parties will outline the final list of assets and the amount of stakes in the merged Company, prepare all the necessary legally binding documents and coordinate the deal with the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Gazprom energoholding (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom) was formed as a vertically integrated company under the Power Generation Strategy implemented by Gazprom. The company runs its power generation subsidiaries as a unified corporate center within Gazprom Group's power generation sector. Gazprom energoholding holds controlling stakes in Mosenergo, TGC-1, WGC-2 and WGC-6. The aggregate installed capacity is nearly 37 GW.

Integrated Energy Systems (IES) (member of Renova Group) holds strategic/controlling stakes and runs four power generation companies (TGC-5, TGC-6, TGC-9, VoTGC) with the aggregate installed capacity of some 16 GW. The power distribution business of IES covers the Urals and Volga regions. Over 10 million individuals and some 62 thousand legal entities are among the customers of the power distribution companies.