SOCAR may put up joint ventures’ shares for sale

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR may put up for sale the shares of a number of its joint ventures, said SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev.

He made the remarks Oct. 18 at a press conference dedicated to the beginning of the sale of bonds in the secondary market of Baku Stock Exchange.

Abdullayev said the matter doesn’t rest in the sale of controlling stakes.

“We can put up for sale a small part of the shares. With this, we want to provide the population with additional tools for investing,” he noted, adding that SOCAR is in talks on the issue with the Baku Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, SOCAR head once again pointed out that the company has no plans to carry out an initial public offering (IPO).

SOCAR includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas) as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

SOCAR has 36 joint enterprises, 18 operation companies and other enterprises.

The company is the sole producer of oil products in Azerbaijan and it has filling stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania and Switzerland. SOCAR is the co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim and other stakes in Turkey.

SOCAR’s assets stand at 40 billion Azerbaijani manats (1.5969 AZN/USD on Oct. 18), its share capital is 13.5 billion manats and authorized capital is 1.6 billion manats.