OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2012. OJSC EuroSibEnergo, which is controlled by Oleg Deripaska's En+ Group, is expecting the privatization process in the electricity sector, particularly in networks, to begin in 2012, and it is ready to participate in the process, EuroSibEnergo's General Director Yevgeny Fedorov said in an interview with Interfax.

"In my view, the next step in reforms should be an acceleration of privatization in the industry. We hope it will be set in motion; that is, that the logic of those statements we heard before will continue. This very positively correlates with what the prime minister said, including with regard to critics [managers at energy companies, mostly state-owned, for using 'gray' schemes for personal ends]," Fedorov said.

"It would be expedient to launch several privatization processes at IDGC next year," he said. EuroSibEnergo is still interested in purchasing at least one of the Inter-District Grid Company Holding (IDGC Holding) of Siberia's (RTS: MRKS) assets, he said.

"We have sent the corresponding proposals to the Energy Ministry. There was earlier talk on either privatizing or short-term managing Buryatenergo and, following a meeting with the deputy prime minister [Igor Sechin], we have already prepared a sort of long-term strategy, including the introduction of a single boiler tariff in the Transbaikal territory, the Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region," Fedorov said.

EuroSibEnergo is also prepared to purchase generating assets, primarily in the European part of Russia and in the Urals, aligned on Rusal's power supply plants, he said. EuroSibEnergo links its potential acquisition on the energy market with a possible merger between Gazprom Energoholding and IES Holding, which would involve sales ordered by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS).

"For some stations, we have a definite interest in such assets [Gazprom Energoholding and IES Holding]. But we aren't looking at OGK and TGK as a whole - rather, we are looking at individual stations that are currently part of IES Holding," Fedorov said.

"First and foremost, we are looking at sites where Rusal has plants," he said. EuroSibEnergo and Rusal are still discussing which of the two companies will own the Bogoslovsk Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHPP) (it will be sold by IES Holding to Deripaska's structures for the needs of the Bogoslovsk aluminum smelter).

In order to expand the number of its assets in the future, EuroSibEnergo plans to use an investment guarantee mechanism and wait for tenders in 2013.

The company does not expect any major changes in energy market regulations in 2012. "Unfortunately, we aren't yet seeing any fundamental changes from the point of view of market regulations. The year will develop based on that. Production indicators will most likely stay at their 2011 levels. The same for investments - around 15 billion rubles," Fedorov said.