The commission for foreign investment in strategic industries, chaired by Putin, also backed Gunvor’s purchase of a stake in an offshore Caspian Sea oil field and several other transactions. But Putin singled out the planned French investment as particularly noteworthy.
“Among these, I want to point out one project that is not big but is significant, in my view,” he said, referring to Sanofi’s intention to buy 74 percent of the Bioton Vostok plant in Oryol.
Sanofi, the world’s third-largest drug maker by sales, wants to produce insulin-filled syringes at the facility, Putin said. The remaining shares will still be owned by Russian businessmen.
Federal Anti-Monopoly Service chief Igor Artemyev, who is in charge of previewing the investment plans, said the French firm would invest hundreds of millions of euros and provide state-of-the-art technology. Officials did not give any other figures about the deal.
The project, Putin said, is especially welcome in light of Russia’s stated efforts to become more self-sufficient in terms of medicine supply.
Gunvor Cyprus Holding Limited, a subsidiary of the Swiss oil trader Gunvor co-owned by Putin’s acquaintance Gennady Timchenko, secured a green light to buy 30 percent in a Swedish oil-producing unit PetroResurs, which is developing the Lagansky field off the Caspian Sea coast.
Swedish oil firm Lundin Petroleum agreed to sell the stake to Gunvor in September. The book value of the field, next to LUKoil’s major Korchagina deposit, is $850 million and potential reserves are more than 800 million barrels.
Lundin is going to invest $540 million in the field this year, 4 percent more than last year. The money will pay for the construction of a drilling rig that is scheduled to start operation in 2011.
In another deal that got the go-ahead, Tatneft Oil, a Swiss-registered subsidiary of the country’s No. 6 oil producer Tatneft, is buying an unspecified number of shares in Bank Zenit.
Tatneft already holds 24.6 percent in the bank.
In addition, the oil company owns 48.8 percent of the International Petrochemical Growth Fund, which has a 41.92 percent stake in the bank. A spokesman for Zenit, the country’s 27th-largest bank by assets, did not respond to an e-mailed request to comment Tuesday evening.
Billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov and Suleiman Kerimov also got approval to consolidate their assets in the gold miner Polyus Gold, Artemyev said. Their Kazakhstan-based company, KazakhGold Group, registered on the island Jersey, will buy a number of Polyus-related units, he said.
In an opening speech at the commission meeting, Putin ordered Artemyev to submit proposals to streamline foreign investment legislation as soon as possible. Artemyev said after the session that his agency would probably be ready to report in two weeks.