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OMV shrugs off talk of Gazprom move



By Upstream staff 

Two core shareholders in OMV have denied reports that Russian gas giant Gazprom is about to buy a stake in the Austrian producer.

Austrian weekly magazine News reported today that Gazprom was eyeing a stake in OMV, whose $36 billion takeover approach for Hungarian player MOL was rejected earlier this week.

The magazine, citing industry sources, said Gazprom was in talks with Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) about a possible sale of the OMV stake.

IPIC holds 17.6% in OMV, while the Austrian government owns 31.5%. The rest of the company's equity is in free float, a Reuters report said.

"We are not in talks with Gazprom about OMV," an IPIC representative told the news agency.

"We have no information and are not involved in this - this is all just pure speculation," said OeIAG, the Austrian government's investment vehicle. "There is no plan for any change in OMV's shareholder structure."

OMV also denied the report.

"No one has approached us," OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer told Reuters. "There is absolutely nothing true in these rumours."

IPIC and OeIAG recently extended their contract on voting rights in OMV for another 10 years, according to Huemer.

In the magazine report, Austrian Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer was cited as saying that selling the state's stake was possible in theory.

"If management comes up to us and if it would be favourable for OMV's strategy we might consider such a step," Molterer was quoted as saying through a spokesman in News.

"But this is currently not on the agenda and also not foreseen in our coalition agreement," Molterer added.

Austrian regulations oblige a shareholder to make public a holding more than 5% in a company. Gazprom has not announced such a holding in OMV.


Thursday, 28 June, 2007, 10:40 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 03 July, 2007, 07:15 GMT

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