Summa Group and Rosneft denied holding negotiations on Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port

Summa Group has made a statement “to prevent further speculations in the media”. According to the statement, the group has not been negotiating any possible transaction on the sale of its share in the capital of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port during the recent weeks.

Rosneft, in its turn, was asked by RBC to confirm its negotiations on the purchase of NCSP share owned by Summa Group (information about such negotiations held by Rosneft had been definitely confirmed by press center of Transneft). In this respect Rosneft has provided the following comment:
 
“We do not usually comment provocations of Transneft’s press center but this time we consider it necessary to make it absolutely clear. In order to fully comply with market principles and to protect our shareholders’ interests, we are not in negotiations and we are not going to enter into any talks with the persons under investigation, which, by the way, are strategic partners of Transneft.

As it is known, Transneft was going to purchase an asset from Summa Group at a price several times as much as its adjusted historical cost. We think that Transneft should settle its problems on its own but we can provide assistance is the colleagues ask for that.”

We suppose that RBC considers the matter settled and information about negotiations between Rosneft and Summa Group as unworthy of belief. However, on the weekend we were asked the same question by representatives of different media (including Vedomosti, The Bell, etc.). Simultaneously, speculations persist in social media. Therefore, Rosneft has to warn about an attempt to arrange a campaign of distributing false information among market players and the public.