DUSHANBE, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Unified Energy System (UES) announced Friday it will sell its stake in heavy machinery manufacturer Power Machines to a strategic domestic investor through a closed tender by late November.
"We had a strategy for Power Machines, which proposed the creation of a market for the company, the development of an investment program and an IPO - which has been accomplished - and finally the sale of the stake to a Russian strategic investor," the head of electricity monopoly UES, Anatoly Chubais, told journalists in Tajikistan.
Chubais is currently visiting the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, as chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States Electric Power Council, which is holding its 32nd session.
Chubais said he was "categorically against increases in the stakes of [German engineering giant] Siemens or the government in Power Machines."
Late in September the UES board decided to sell its stake in Power Machines.
Russian holding company Interros closed in late September a deal to sell a 30.4% stake in Power Machines to Cyprus-based Highstat Ltd., controlled by steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov after receiving permission from the Anti-Monopoly Service to buy up to 100% in Power Machines.
Earlier in September, the service prohibited Siemens, which holds 25% plus one share in Power Machines, from increasing its interest to a controlling stake.
Power Machines accounts for 37% of Russia's turbines, turbo-generators, hydro-generators and electrical equipment market. The company provides engineering services, and produces, assembles, services and modernizes equipment for hydro, thermal, gas and nuclear power plants and the transportation industry. It has clients in 87 countries.
Asked about his plans after leaving his position as CEO of Unified Energy System, Chubais said: "I can only say for sure that there are two spheres I would not like to engage in: I am categorically against holding a government post or being involved in politics."
The UES chief served as deputy prime minister in Boris Yeltsin's government, and oversaw Russia's controversial post-Soviet privatizations, in which key state assets fell into the hands of a small number of well-connected tycoons.
