Russia's LUKOIL says VEB owns a 2 pct stake
MOSCOW, June 23 (Reuters) - Russian state bank VEB amassed about 2 percent of oil major LUKOIL (LKOH.MM) through a programme to support the value of blue chip stocks last year, the privately controlled firm said on Tuesday.
The programme boosted the share prices of some of Russia's largest companies after incurred heavy losses at the onset of the financial crisis last fall, and it has also served to expand the state's role in strategic industries.
LUKOIL, in which ConocoPhillips (COP.N) owns a 20 percent stake, announced last week that VEB had built up a stake without specifying its size.
"At the end of last year VEB indeed became a stakeholder with slightly more than 2 percent. It bought these shares on the market, and it helped stabilise the stock market," Interfax quoted LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov as saying.
A company spokesman confirmed this to Reuters.
Last year the state allocated 175 billion roubles ($5.62 billion) to VEB from its National Welfare Fund of oil windfalls to buy shares on the open market.
VEB spent 155.8 billion roubles of this money on the most liquid bonds and shares of 15 companies. It purchased 3.7 percent of Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM), as well as stakes in Gazprom (GAZP.MM), Sberbank (SBER03.MM), Rosneft (ROSN.MM), VTB (VTBR.MM) and Surgut (SNGS.MM).
(Reporting by Tanya Mosolova, writing by Simon Shuster; editing by John Stonestreet)
