At the auctions at Moscow exchange on January 29, 2015 LUKoil’s capitalization totaled 2.42 trillion rubles, while Rosneft’s – 2.4 trillion rubles. In early year the state company cost 133 billion rubles more, than the private one. During January Rosneft’s papers’ cost increased by 17.05%, while LUKoil’s – by 26.3%.
For the first time since 2006 LUKoil is ahead of Rosneft , said Aleksei Kokin, senior oil and gas analyst of Uralsib Capital.
Rosneft’s IPO capitalization totaled $79.8 billion, the second place in Russia after Gasprom, reads the company’s web site.
During a month Rosneft’s papers went down by 5% at the London Exchange, while LUKoil’s by only 0.5%. As a result, the gap decreased to $0.7 billion: by January 30 the state company cost $35.1 billion, while the biggest private oil company – $34.4 billion.
LUKoil’s representative has refused to comment on the growth of capitalization and Rosneft’s press office did not respond to RBC’s inquiry.
Commenting on reduction of Russia’s rating, Rosneft’s Vice President Mikhail Leontyev has urged to quit “paying attention to such things as the so-called market capitalization, stock indexes and etc.” “This is all the matter of the past,” RIA Novosti quoted Leontyev as saying on January 26, 2015. “Rosneft is the biggest public company with the proved oil resources. In 2014 its production totaled 190.9 million tons against LUKoil’s 86.6 million tons.”
As oil prices keep on going down (in January 2015 Brent oil price went down below $50.00 per barrel, though in summer 2014 it was above $100), the companies with more debts start losing and the companies with less debts increase their capitalization, said Ildar Davletshin, analyst of Renaissance Capital. This happens not only in Russia, but also all over the world. This could be seen on the example of LUKoil, Surgutneftegas and Tatneft: the dynamics of their shares is much better, than that of Rosneft and Gasprom (the gas monopoly has dome debts, but during this year its free money flow is expected to be zero, because of slump of gas prices), continued expert.
This year Rosneft will have to repay debts worth $19.5 billion (about $7 billion in February 2015), while LUKoil will have to pay off about $3 billion. By quarter 3, 2014 Rosneft’s bet debt totaled $45 billion, while LUKoil’s – $10.2 billion.
Right now LUKoil and Rosneft together cost five times less, than the biggest US oil company ExxonMobil ($370.86 billion). The double sanctions imposed on the company have their influence, but this is not of a paramount importance, said Vitalii Kryukov, Small Letter Director. He aid now the investors mostly pay attention to the profitability of their investments and thus, they are more interested in LUKoil’s shares, than in Rosneft’s shares. “The company has a big debt and as net profit declines, Rosneft’s dividends could go down as well,” Kryukov explained.
