The non-profit partnership Market Council that is supposed to succeed RAO UES of Russia in terms of coordinating the Russian power industry after the reorganisation of the holding company is expected to be based on Trading System Administrator (TSA), which is the organiser of trade on the electricity exchange, Yuri Udaltsov, a member of the RAO UES board of management, said at a conference in Moscow on Wednesday. Trade on the electricity market will be organised by a specially established open or closed joint-stock company that initially will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Council, as conceived by RAO. In the future, according to Mr Udaltsov, third-party capital may also be attracted to this company. "It would be a good idea to endow such 'Market Council' with an opportunity to influence not only the trading floor that at the first stage should be a wholly-owned subsidiary to which capital may be attracted later, but also some other infrastructure organisations, namely, System Operator and Federal Grid Company, in order for the function available with RAO to be transformed into a different quality," the holding company's management board member said. "Such structure could also further the market and help market participants," Mr Udaltsov added. RAO UES suggests a scheme for spinning off System Operator which will result in Market Council buying out approximately 25% of its shares due to the holding company's minority shareholders, according to earlier reports. According to Mr Udaltsov, Market Council may also be entrusted with management of 25% of Federal Grid Company (FGC), but he did not specify whether it will be part of the state-owned interest. In a conversation with journalists, TSA management board chairman Dmitry Ponomariov explained that third-party companies may be engaged in the capital of the electricity exchange by analogy with Russian Trading System wherein stock market participants have interest. He also believes it correct, in the event of an expansion of the list of products traded on TSA, for example, with gas, that representatives of the respective industry participate in the capital of the energy exchange. The decision to establish Market Council based on TSA requires amendments to the law as regards the procedure for organising trade in electricity, according to Mr Ponomariov's information. Such amendments are already being prepared and the decision on the establishment of the non-profit partnership Market Council is to be passed within a year, according to him. The management board chairman refused to specify any prospects or deadlines for passing these amendments in the pre-election year though. |
