Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet the heads of global commodities and investment giants on Wednesday in a bid to show the country remains open for business.
Putin will hold talks with billionaire Ivan Glasenberg, the chief executive officer of Glencore Plc, as well as Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund head Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA Managing Director Carlo Messina, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Rosneft PJSC CEO Igor Sechin will also attend.
The meeting follows Glencore’s $11 billion (Dh40.37 billion) agreement with the Qatari fund to buy a 19.5 per cent stake in Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, using loans from Intesa. The December deal was one of the biggest in the energy industry last year despite attempts by the US and Europe to isolate Russia economically following the annexation of Crimea. The investment helped to narrow Russia’s budget deficit after petrodollars dried up during crude’s collapse.
Putin will talk about “the investment climate, the reliability of Russia for foreign investors and prospects for expanding cooperation,” Peskov said on a conference call. The Kremlin said Jan. 23 that Sechin was keen to underline the significance of the deal with Glencore and Qatar and to outline new projects.
The deal meant Rosneft avoided buying back the 19.5 per cent stake itself. That would have been seen as “Russia’s demise” in the search for investors, according to Ivan Mazalov, a director at Prosperity Capital Management Ltd., which has $3.5 billion under management.
“It was important for Russia to win a PR battle that Russia is open to do business and that investors consider Russia as a good destination for their capital,” Mazalov said by email.
