According to a statement made by Gazprom in follow-up of a working meeting between Mr Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company Management Committee and Mr Viktor Vekselberg Chairman of Renova Group's Board of Directors that OJSC Gazprom and Renova confirmed their intention to merger power assets.

The statement points out that "The parties confirmed the intent to complete the merger of the power assets owned by both companies and agreed to extend till the end of the first quarter of 2012 the relevant Agreement of Intent signed in July 2011."

In particular, the parties promised to shortly coordinate their strategies including the appropriate steps for submitting a new request to anti-monopoly authorities instead of the one revoked by the parties in late December. The meeting also addressed other areas of cooperation between Gazprom and Renova Group.

It will be recalled that in July 2011, Mr A Miller and Mr V Vekselberg signed an agreement on intent. The document confirms intentions of the parties to consolidate their electric energy assets on the basis of Gazprom Energoholding LLC which will be reincorporated as an open joint stock company and could possibly hold an IPO at a stock exchange.

According to the target structure of the stockholder equity Gazprom will hold no more than 75% minus 1 share and Renova at least 25% plus 1 share in the merged company. The consolidation is expected to result in the merged company's ability to control basic power generation and power supply assets belonging to the parties.

(Sourced from AK&M)