Gazprom Weighs Offering Shares on Leading Asia Stock Exchange

Russia’s Gazprom is mulling whether to offer its shares on one of Asia’s main stock exchanges, Andrey Kruglov, the deputy chairman of the firm’s management committee, said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kruglov said at the Investor Day event in Singapore that the company "is looking into additional placement on one of Asia’s leading stock exchanges."

Last June, he said that the state-run gas producer was considering going to the Hong Kong stock exchange (SEHK) not earlier than 2017. He ruled out new bond issues.

Boris Ivanov, the managing director of Gazprombank, said earlier the GPB might place $500 million worth of yuan-denominated bonds on SEHK on behalf of Gazprom.

Gazprom's shares already trade in Moscow and its depositary receipts trade in London, Frankfurt and Berlin, as well as over-the-counter trading in the US.

In 2014, Gazprom signed a 30-year framework agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for annual deliveries of 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas through the eastern route pipeline, formally known as the Power of Siberia, which is expected to come on-stream in late 2019.

In 2015, Gazprom and CNPC signed a supplementary agreement on constructing the western route pipeline, known as the Power of Siberia-2. The Power of Siberia-2 has a planned annual capacity of 30 billion cubic meters, with possible second and third legs bringing annual capacity up to 100 billion cubic meters.