Russia power firm must seek new markets abroad-Sechin

MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters) - Russia's state controlled electricity trader, Inter RAO (IRAO.MM) should expand into more developing markets, its chairman, influential Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, said on Thursday.

"If power consumption is falling in Western Europe, we need to build up our positions on other markets," Sechin, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in charge of energy policy in the government, told a shareholder meeting.

"This will help us diversify risk and let the company develop stably in the future."

Sechin mentioned Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and southern Europe as good targets for expansion.

Chief Executive Yeveny Dod said Inter RAO was working on four to five acquisition opportunities and said its plan to spend $5.5 billion on acquisitions, announced a year ago before the crisis hit Russia, remained in force.

Inter RAO was founded under the auspices of the former state electricity monopoly to participate in foreign power markets, largely as an exporter of electricity to Finland.

But it began to expand into generation, first of all in neighbouring former Soviet republics, and has continued to plot growth while many other former state power companies, mostly domestic generators, are ratcheting down investment plans.

Among its current foreign projects, it is participating in a Russian bid to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey and announced a $1 billion investment pool with state bank VTB (VTBR.MM) and Kuwait's Alghanim & Sons for Russian and Middle East Gulf projects.

By buying and taking power generators under management, it has grown into one of Russia's top power producers, with 18,000 megawatts of generation, and has set itself the aim of raising the figure to 30,000.

Its stock has risen 260 percent this year, against a 52 percent increase in the benchmark RTS index as the company emerges as a state favourite in the power sector.

Reflecting closer relations with state companies, Dod said it had an agreement with Fenice, a unit of France's EDF (EDF.PA), to supply power to companies owned by Russian Technologies, run by another Putin ally, Sergei Chemezov.

It plans to issue additional shares to swap for assets held by state nuclear concern Rosatom and state bank VEB. The new issue should be made by May-June 2010, Dod told reporters at the annual meeting. (Reporting by Olga Popova; writing by Melissa Akin; editing by Jon Loades-Carter)