OREANDA-NEWS. Fortum optimises its asset portfolio and has sold its 100% shareholding in its Russian subsidiary OOO Tobolsk CHP to SIBUR, Russia's largest integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. OOO Tobolsk CHP owns and operates the combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the city of Tobolsk in Western Siberia.

Fortum estimates to book a one-time pre-tax sales gain totalling approximately EUR 30 million (currently corresponding to approximately EUR 0.03 per share) in its first quarter 2016 results.

The Tobolsk CHP plant was built in the 1980's to serve the local petrochemical industry. Today it supplies power to the electricity wholesale market and process steam to SIBUR's Tobolsk Neftekhim petrochemical plant. The plant also supplies heat to the 100,000 residents of Tobolsk. The CHP plant's production capacity is 665 megawatts (MW) electricity and 2,585 MW heat.

"With this transaction, we are reducing our presence in the regulated heat business. SIBUR will have an efficient and recently modernised plant with good synergetic effect on the process steam supply. Therefore, both parties were motivated to conclude this transaction, which has a clear win-win effect," says Alexander Chuvaev, Executive Vice President for Fortum's Russia Division.