Rusenergosbyt denies the withdrawal of Italian Enel from its capital

Italian Enel did not withdraw from the capital of the energy sales company Rusenergosbyt, as follows from the statement of the head of the board of directors of Rusenergosbyt LLC, Alexander Linnikov (he was nominated by Enel). “Changes in the corporate structure are not related to changes in the composition of shareholders,” he told Kommersant through a representative.

Enel’s share of 49.5% became the property of Rusenergosbyt LLC on April 9, according to data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, which was noticed by Interfax. Enel has not yet commented on the situation.

However, Kommersant’s sources claim that negotiations on Enel’s exit from the Russian sales company have been going on for months. The transfer of Enel’s share into the ownership of Rusenergosbyt can only be formal, in order to then transfer the asset to a strategic investor. In addition, the second major shareholder, the UST group of Grigory Berezkin, which owns 50.5% of the company, had previously thought about leaving Rusenergosbyt. Gazprom Energoholding wanted to acquire the share of the ESN group and Enel back in 2021 (see Kommersant dated June 4, 2021).

Italian Enel entered the capital of Rusenergosbyt LLC in 2006, paying $105 million for 49.5% of the company. According to RAS reporting, Rusenergosbyt’s revenue for 2022 is 207.85 billion rubles. (growth by 3.8% year-on-year), net profit – 9.67 billion rubles. (growth of almost 25% year on year).

Enel in October 2022 withdrew from another large Russian asset: the Italian company sold its stake in the generating company Enel Russia, which is now renamed EL5-Energo. The new majority shareholder is LUKOIL.

Polina Smertina, Tatyana Dyatel