Rosneft CEO Sechin, fund manager Mobius, to discuss TNK-BP buy-out: Ifax

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian oil company Rosneft , will meet on Saturday evening with Mark Mobius, the head of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, to discuss a buy-out of former TNK-BP minority shareholders, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.

The meeting follows a letter and a phone call from Mobius to Sechin in which he requested it, Interfax reported, citing a source at Rosneft.

Rosneft told Reuters that it was unable to confirm the information about the meeting. A Rosneft source confirmed that Mobius had written a letter to Sechin.

Minority shareholders in TNK-BP Holding, the former Russian subsidiary of Anglo-Russian oil joint venture TNK-BP, have been disappointed by the terms of a recently announced buy-out.

The Franklin Templeton investment group was among the complaining investors. Mobius, who heads Templeton's emerging markets division, is one of the highest-profile investors in emerging markets.

Last month Rosneft announced an offer under which investors in RN Holding , the renamed TNK-BP Holding, would be paid 67 roubles ($2.07) per share, a premium of around 30 percent over the market price at that time.

This follows months of investor dissatisfaction that minority shareholders in TNK-BP Holding were not bought out at the time of Rosneft's $55 billion acquisition of the holding's parent company TNK-BP in April.

Analysts calculate that a deal on such terms would work out at around $3.70 per share in RN Holding, almost double the price now on offer.

On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to rule out any improvement in the offer price.

RN Holding's present market price is 63.40 roubles ($1.97) per share, slightly below Rosneft's recent offer price of 67 roubles.

(Reporting by Jason Bush; editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rosneft-ceo-sechin-fund-manager-mobius-discuss-tnk-121656722--finance.html
Tags: glee   silk road   Whodunnit   pga tour   Rosalind Franklin