MOSCOW, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - After the Russian government removed the "ring fence" from around state-owned energy giant Gazprom that had prevented foreigners from owning common stock in the company, its capitalization grew to more than $200 billion at the beginning of the year, the Gazprom chairman said Thursday.
"Gazprom shares climbed almost 20% on the RTS stock market and the company's capitalization increased to more than $200 billion at the year's start," First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
He said the reason was that the liberalization of Gazprom shares had set equal terms for Gazprom share trading in accordance with international standards of corporate management.
Since 1999 Gazprom stock has been traded via the RTS Order Driven Stock Market on the St. Petersburg stock exchange. The shares will now be traded on the RTS Classic market, along with the other major Russian companies.
