MOSCOW: Shares in Russian oil giant Rosneft leapt over five percent Thursday after the Kremlin announced the 10.5 billion euro ($11.3 billion) sale of a stake to commodities trader Glencore and Qatar's sovereign fund.
President Vladimir Putin late Wednesday hailed the deal for 19.5 percent of the state-controlled firm as the largest in the global energy sector for 2016, a major fillip for the authorities as they seek to plug the country's growing deficit.
The deal is part of a broader privatisation drive and comes despite Moscow being mired in Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine that have played a major part in plunging the country into recession.
Rosneft stock was up some 5.43 percent by 0730 GMT on the Moscow Exchange to 375.6 rubles ($5.9, 5.5 euros), hiking the company's overall valuation to some 58 billion euros.
Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore and the sovereign fund of gas-rich emirate Qatar will go fifty-fifty on the deal, which leaves the Russian state controlling just over 50 percent of the country's largest oil firm.
Rosneft chief Igor Sechin told Putin that Rosneft had taken part in talks with "more than 30 companies, funds, professional investors, sovereign funds, financial institutions from countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region" ahead of the deal.
The final agreement is being partly funded by a cash from "one of the major European banks", he said, without naming the lender.
The move comes after oil prices have risen to more than $50 a barrel after OPEC members last week hammered out a deal to cut oil output for the first time in eight years.
Glencore said in a statement that the deal "will be conditional on the subsequent finalisation of all relevant financing, guarantee and other agreements," and could be closed in mid-December.
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