Russia to end major restructuring of RAO UES of Russia
RAO UES of Russia officials, reporters and top managers of the Russian major energy holding will meet at the head office of the company in south-western Moscow to hold the last working day of the Russian state energy monopoly on Monday according to Itar-Tass. RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia will cease to exist officially as a juridical entity as of July 1, 2008. The Russian energy industry will finish its five-year transition period, and the top managers of the energy holding headed by Anatoly Chubais will resign.
Chubais will hold his last press conference in the capacity of the RAO UES of Russia CEO. Then the RAO UES of Russia flag will be hauled down. Instead of this flag the energy companies established during the energy reform in the country will hoist their flags in front of the entrance to the former head office of RAO UES of Russia in Vernadsky Avenue in Moscow. These energy companies include six wholesale generating companies, 14 territorial generating companies, “HydroOGK” (“RusHydro”), the Federal Grid Company (FSK), “System Operator”, “Inter RAO UES” and others.
The reins of management in the Russian energy industry will automatically pass to the state, and shareholders of the former energy holding will receive the shares of new energy companies. FSK, “System Operator”, “HydroOGK”, “Inter RAO UES, “Holding MRSK”, “RAO Energy Systems of the East” will remain under the state control. Retail suppliers, wholesale generating companies and territorial generating companies will pass under management of Russian and foreign private investors, including Gazprom, the Siberian Coal and Energy Company (SUEK), “KES-Holding” (Integrated Energy Systems) owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, Finland’s Fortum, Italy’s Enel, Germany’s E.ON and other companies.
“RAO UES of Russia finishes its work, but the Russian electric power industry receives a great, unprecedented impetus for development,” the outgoing chief executive of the Russian energy monopoly believes. As a result of the sale to strategic investors of generating companies and retail supplies, research institutes and other non-core assets RAO UES of Russia managed to attract over a trillion roubles for the construction of new power generating facilities and the development of the national power grid.