By Olga Popova and Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Hydro OGK aims to become the world's largest listed renewable energy company next year when it floats its stock and plans to double generating capacity by 2020, its chief executive said on Monday.
Vyacheslav Sinyugin told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit that Hydro OGK, already the largest power producer in Russia, was on track to list its shares on local Russian bourses in February 2008 and float abroad in mid-2008.
"Hydro OGK positions itself as a global company. ... We don't want Hydro OGK to become a speculative stock. It is a long-term game," he said, adding that Hydro OGK will become only second by installed capacity after Canada's state Hydro-Quebec.
Russia is undergoing power sector reform, which will be completed in the middle of 2008 when the former power monopoly RAO UES EESR.MM will cease to exist, having been divided into private generation and distribution units and a state grid.
The reform, which has been a copy of European power sector reforms, is designed to bring in competition and raise much needed money to upgrade aging equipment meet the country's rising electricity demand amid robust economic growth.
Hydro OGK, which generates 20 percent of power in Russia, will remain under state control, however, as Sinyugin said it played too big a role in regulating major rivers and helping developing poor regions to become fully private.
Minority shareholders in UES and Hydro OGK's units will get the remaining 49 percent of the stock and will be free to keep their stakes or resell them on the secondary market when Hydro OGK's listing is cleared.
Hydro OGK is currently not considering a secondary stock offer via a new share issue, said Sinyugin. He declined to predict the company's possible free float and market value. Continued...
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