Vnesheconombank (VEB) has become a major shareholder in Lukoil (RTS: LKOH), the Russian oil company's press office said according to Interfax.
"The company welcomes the emergence of Vnesheconombank, as one of the largest Russian state backbone financial institutions and strategic investor in the real sector of the economy, among its shareholders," Lukoil's vice president, Leonid Fedun, was quoted as saying.
Lukoil did not say how many shares VEB had acquired.
Gennady Krasovsky, the company's investor relations manager, told Interfax that Russian law obliges an issuer to disclose information about the direct ownership by one shareholder of 5% or more of its shares. "Disclosing information about a smaller holding is the
shareholder's own prerogative," he said.
VEB told Interfax that it was not willing to disclose how many Lukoil shares it owned, but it did it bought the shares last year with the purpose of diversifying the investment of National Welfare Fund assets.
VEB said in its annual report that it had acquired shares in Gazprom (RTS: GAZP), Sberbank (RTS: SBER), Rosneft (RTS: ROSN), Lukoil, VTB (RTS: VTBR), MMC Norilsk Nickel (RTS: GMKN) and Surgutneftegas (RTS: SNGS), but it did not say how many shares in which company.
At the beginning of June it emerged that VEB had bought 3.7% of Norilsk Nickel, just under 5% of Sberbank and 1% of Gazprom with National Welfare Fund assets.
VEB received 175 billion rubles in Welfare Fund assets, repayable by October 21, 2013 at 7% per annum to invest in the stock market. It was the main player in the Russian stock market in November-December, some days driving the stock indices up on its own after buying up
benchmark stocks. VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev said the bank stopped buying up shares at the end of last year, following a decision by the Finance Ministry. It had spent 155.8 billion rubles of the 175 billion rubles as of January 1 - 80% of it on shares and 20% on bonds.