The Russian government intends to hold auctions in the coming months to offer stakes in state companies as part of a program to privatize government shareholdings, a Kremlin economic aide said on Tuesday.
Arkady Dvorkovich said that initial public offerings (IPOs) could also be held to privatize state companies.
Dvorkovich did not specify, however, which share packages would be offered for sale or which companies could make initial public offerings. He earlier suggested transport, logistics and ship-building companies, as well as airports would be auctioned off.
"Practice shows that state companies are normally less efficient than companies in private ownership," Dvorkovich said, explaining the government's decision to privatize state holdings.
Analysts say, however, the government's plans to privatize state stakes are aimed at covering the state budget deficit in 2010, predicted at 6.8% of the country's GDP. They also say that the move is a forced measure as companies have seen their market capitalization plummet amid the global financial and economic crisis and can only be sold at prices far below their pre-crisis value.
Government sources earlier said that the list of major enterprises being prepared for privatization included Russia's largest shipping company Sovcomflot, the Novorossiisk Merchant Marine Port in the northeast part of the Black Sea, the Vanino Port on the Russian Pacific coast, the Murmansk Port in northwest Russia, and the Tuapse Marine Port in the Black Sea.
The list of privatizations could also include government corporations that were created under the presidency of Vladimir Putin to spur the development of particular sectors of the economy but have drawn criticism lately for their lack of transparency in spending and low efficiency.
In his state-of-the-nation address to both houses of parliament late last year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said state corporations had outlived their usefulness, had no future and should be reorganized and later privatized.
MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti)
