Russia to continue to exit 'temporary' assets in 2025, awaits privatization initiatives from state-owned cos - Siluanov

MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) - The state has earned more than it planned from privatization in 2024 and will continue to exit assets received by the treasury as a result of court rulings in 2025, and plans to find private investors for foreign-owned enterprises put under the management of the Russian Federal Property Agency (Rosimushchestvo).

As for traditional privatization - the sale of shares in large government-related companies - officials are awaiting their initiatives: with interest rates high and restrictions on lending, state companies will have to tap the IPO market, the Finance Ministry thinks.

"This year we have exceeded our plans for the sale of property. And this year we'll receive more than 130 billion rubles of such income from privatization, from the sale of property, which is more than we planned. This policy will continue next year," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"We will be selling the assets that come our way and are the sort of business assets that are better to sell so that they can work efficiently, so that private individuals can manage them. We plan the same policy for next year. More than 80 billion rubles are budgeted from the receipt of such assets. I think it will be higher," he said.

Nor does the state plan to remain for long in those assets that have not become the property of the Russian Federation, but are under the temporary management of Rosimushchestvo, as was the case with the Danish brewing concern Carlsberg's enterprises.

"This asset was managed by Rosimushchestvo, not the treasury. Rosimushchestvo managed this business temporarily. We really aren't interested in keeping such assets in the treasury - private individuals are better at running them than us," Siluanov said.

In general, the state currently has a lot of assets that are not used as effectively as desired, and the regions "signal" this to the center, the Siluanov said. A government commission looks at such requests and, as a rule, makes a decision. "This is not so much replenishing treasury revenues as more effective management of the property at the federal government's disposal," he said. "We will address this problem closely next year," he said.

There are so far no large deals involving Russian stakes in large state-owned companies, which have always been the main privatization intrigue, in the government's plans for next year. At the same time, the authorities expect that credit restrictions - both natural, like the current level of interest rates, and administrative restrictions on raising bank loans - will push state-owned companies themselves onto the equity capital market.

"This [selling stakes in the largest state-owned companies] is not in our specific plans, but it is possible that some state-owned companies may offer such solutions themselves during the next year. We are currently trying to limit lending activity. Money is expensive, and investment programs need to be implemented. So to find funds it is possible to hold initial public offerings and raise equity capital. I think this would be benefit the companies themselves. The mentality of companies is now changing, and we see from a number of cases that they are thinking it might be good to raise money on financial market, attract shareholders and use this money to develop a company. This would be right," Siluanov said.

"Our government-related companies need to address this issue. On the one hand, it makes them more efficient, and on the other hand it raises money. In today's conditions a company's IPO, its entry into the financial market solves several problems. First, it attracts resources to the company or attracts resources to the budget, if we want money for the budget, and gives businesses the opportunity to make decisions on managing the company more effectively, from their point of view. Because if you have a business, it always tries to cater for its own interests. And what interests? More dividends. And for there to be more dividends a company need to become more efficient. I think we'll continue to move in this direction, and next year we will continue our plans for privatization and for signing state-owned companies up to the strategy for entering the financial market," Siluanov said, adding that the president set the task boosting the stock market's capitalization to 66% of GDP by 2030, and this is "not an easy task."

He mentioned the IPO for DOM.RF, plans for which the Finance Ministry has already announced several times in 2025, in which about 5% of the state-owned company's shares might be sold. "This is a good company, clean and transparent, it brings dividends. I think the market will be interested," Siluanov said.