The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service approved a bid by the country’s private Summa Group to purchase 50 percent minus one share in the United Grain Company (UGC), a service spokesman said on Thursday.
“The service approved [the purchase]. The agreement was signed on Wednesday evening,” the spokesman told Prime news agency.
The Russian president signed an order to privatize 50 percent minus one share of state-owned UGC in November 2011 in terms of a privatization program for key state assets. UGC’s board of directors chose Summa as a strategic investor in late May 2012.
Summa, a diversified holding owned by Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, is a private group with assets in port logistics, engineering, construction, telecommunications and the oil and gas sectors.
The state-owned UGC is an agro-industrial company focused on development and operation of domestic grain market infrastructure, higher exports of Russian grain and provision of grain trades in the domestic market.