The Russian government has shortlisted Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan as potential investment advisers for the sale of 50% minus one share in Russia's largest shipping company Sovcomflot, an Economic Development Ministry official said on Wednesday.
"In relation to Sovcomflot, we have made big advances and have already selected three banks: Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank," said the ministry's property department head Alexei Uvarov.
The Russian government has approved a privatization plan for 2011-2013, including ten top companies, which could bring an extra 1 trillion rubles ($33 billion) to the state's coffers, although there are no firm dates for the sales and the sizes of the stakes have not yet been defined.
The privatization began earlier this year with the sale of a 10% stake in the country's second largest bank VTB, for about 96 billion rubles ($3.3 billion).
The sell-off list includes oil major Rosneft, of which 25% minus one share is to go under the hammer, hydropower generator RusHydro, of which about 8% will be sold, and about 28% of the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System.
The government also plans to sell 7.58% in Russia's top bank Sberbank and a further 25.5% in the country's second largest lender VTB bank.
The Economic Development Ministry will also choose investment consultants for all the other large firms in the privatization plan by the end of June 2011, Uvarov said.
"We plan to make clear choices of investment consultants for all assets by the end of June," he said.
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti)
