Gazprom said Thursday that it would merge its stakes in two generating companies to consolidate its energy assets, pushing both generators' stock up to two-year highs. Gazprom intends merge OGK-2 with OGK-6 to create a single company with 10 power stations and a capacity of 17.75 gigawatts, said Denis Fyodorov, CEO of Gazpromenergoholding, a subsidiary managing the gas giant's energy assets. As a first step, OGK-2's board of directors voted for Alexei Mityushov, CEO at OGK-6, to head up OGK-2 as well, OGK-2 said in a statement Thursday.
Investors welcomed the news, with OGK-2's shares increasing 2.9 percent to 1.77 rubles on the MICEX and OGK-6 shooting up 6.02 percent to 1.37 rubles. "We believe a synergy effect may be in fact realized through economies of scale and higher market power on spot electricity exchange," Rye Man & Gor Securities said in a note. "The unified company would own about 17.7 gigawatts of electric capacities, two times higher than an average OGK, and its total market cap would exceed $3.3 billion."
