OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2011. Gazprom Neft announces that it has finalised its offer made in January to the minority shareholders of Serbian oil company NIS. 8,4 million NIS shares were submitted for purchase, amounting to 5.15% of the company's authorised capital. The maximum number of NIS shares that could be submitted for the buy-out was 19.12% or 31,18 million of shares with voting rights.

Based on the previously announced offer price of €4.80 per share, Gazprom Neft will in total pay €40.3 million for acquiring these shares, increasing its stake in NIS from 51% to 56.15%.

The share price has been calculated in accordance with Serbian law. Following Gazprom Neft's 51% acquisition of NIS, an offer to NIS' minority shareholders was one of the conditions agreed between Gazprom Neft and the Government of Serbia as a part of the purchase agreement.

"The number of shares submitted by NIS minority shareholders clearly indicates their belief in the company's growth potential and its prospects for increasing value. Since NIS came under the management of Gazprom Neft, we have focused on and succeeded in making the company profitable, launched large-scale modernisation and increased production by a third. Looking forward we expect NIS to significantly increase its scale of operations, become a key player in the Balkan market and a leader in terms of value creation", commented Vadim Yakovlev, First Deputy CEO of Gazprom Neft and Chairman of the Board of NIS.