intention to purchase from the Central Bank shares the government announced in early February. The necessity of the transaction due to conflict of interest: the Central Bank is also a shareholder and Supervisory authority for the savings Bank. In mid-March, President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the purchase. The document said that the share price will be determined by their weighted average price at the time of purchase. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov then evaluated the transaction 2.45 trillion. He said that it is planned to split the sum into several parts: in 2020 expected transfer of the first tranche of 1.2 trillion rubles, and to complete the transaction – just 2021.
Then the Central Bank has proposed to defer the transfer of revenue for six months because of volatile markets. But peregrinos: the government promptly bought the stake, paying the whole amount at once, but at the same time to save 300 billion rubles. Now, the Central Bank must transfer to the budget’s profit until may 6.
the Ministry of Finance chose the most favorable moment for the purchase of shares. In February, when the deal was announced, the share of Sberbank on Masuria cost 254,5 ruble apiece. The parties agreed that the final package price will be determined by a weighted average of the value of securities in 6 months. But then the unexpected happened: the collapse of the deal, OPEC+ brought down the price of oil, revenues in Russia have fallen sharply, the crisis began because of the coronavirus. The stock market collapsed. On the day the President signed the law on the purchase of Sberbank, March 18, the Bank’s shares broke through the minimum cost 174 rubles apiece. This recession and took advantage of the government. By agreement between the Finance Ministry and Central Bank the amount of the transaction decided to determine at the weighted average cost for one month, not six. By 9 April the stock rose to 203,6 rubles, taking into account the March peak of the market down, every action has cost the government in 189,44 rubles apiece. Hence, savings of 300 billion rubles.
“the Government has chosen the optimal time to buy shares of Sberbank. Further delay could lead to the fact that nwhile calculating the weighted average of began to get negative effects from the spread of the novel coronavirus and the fall in oil prices”, – says head of Department of analytical researches “Higher school of financial management” Michael Kogan. As the government acquired shares in fact from the state, to wait for a strong price decline was also not in his best interest: then, when shifting from one gocobachi to another, would have gotten lost precious rubles. Thus, the government, fearing a strong stock market collapse, captured the moment the optimal value of the securities.
