Deals

Russia Shelves $5 Billion Deal as Asset Sales Hit Snag

  • Prime minister chose to delay Bashneft sale, spokeswoman says
  • Weak market, other asset sales were among reasons, RBC reports
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Russia is delaying what would have been its biggest asset sale in a decade after renewed weakness in global oil markets and tensions among potential buyers upended plans to offer a stake in Bashneft PJSC.

“The prime minister made the decision, which was approved by the president, to move the Bashneft privatization to a later date,” Premier Dmitry Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said by phone on Tuesday, without elaborating. The sale won’t happen this year, the news website RBC reported, citing a person it didn’t identify.