MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft will give priority to individual investors over banks at its initial public offering later this year, a senior executive of Russia's largest savings bank Sberbank said Wednesday.

Bella Zlatkis, Deputy Board Chair of the state-owned bank, said: "The IPO will be a classic one, so all those interested in buying the Rosneft shares available for sale will be able to apply. It is the public, not Sberbank, that will be the first buyers of the shares."

Sberbank is helping Rosneft to prepare its offering of around $15 billion worth of shares in Russia and overseas.

The head of Russia's financial markets watchdog, Oleg Vyugin, had told reporters at the Russian Economic Forum in London on Monday that Sberbank would purchase Rosneft's IPO to then resell it to the public.

Zlatkis said journalists had misinterpreted Vyugin's comments, and that Rosneft shares would be available for sale in its branches, but at the primary market rate.

The number of shares to be made available on domestic and foreign markets, as well as the placement date, will be approved at a Rosneft board meeting in June.