By Eduard Gismatullin
OAO Atomenergomash, a Russian state-owned supplier of equipment to nuclear power plants, is diversifying into shale gas and wind power, and plans an initial public offering for its separate operations in 2014 or 2015.
The company will also invest about 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) by 2015 to modernize operations and for acquisitions to expand outside of Russia, said Chief Executive Officer Vladimir Kashchenko in an interview in London. The company plans to sell shares separately in its nuclear, thermal power, alternative energy, and gas and petrochemicals businesses in 2014 or 2015.
“We would like to sell shares to return some funding back to the state,” Kashchenko said. “We have a long way to go.”
Atomenergomash, or AEM, earns about 60 percent of its sales from supplying Rosatom, Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corp. AEM, based in Moscow, is expanding into markets outside of the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe such as India, Vietnam and China. It’s also examining proposals to develop shale gas projects in Morocco, Syria, Central Asia and the Middle East.
“Shale gas projects will become a significant vector in our development because the demand for cleaner burning fuels will be growing,” Kashchenko said. “It’s important for us strategically to develop non-nuclear businesses because we can see a large potential and have key technologies to expand.”
The company plans to almost double its Russian market share to 30 percent and get about the same proportion of its sales outside of the country by 2015. It expects to double sales this year to $2 billion through organic growth and acquisitions.
Wind Energy
“We hope to maintain our growth rate,” Kashchenko said. “We set up a renewable energy division last year and will be expanding into wind power generation.”
In the next six months, Atomenergomash plans to buy one of three companies with wind-turbine technology it has short-listed to help it build Russian farms, he said, declining to elaborate.
The country, the largest oil and natural gas producer, aims to generate about 2.5 percent of its energy by 2015 from renewable sources, excluding hydropower. It needs to develop laws to stimulate the use of alternative energy, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said in June.
“I can see a large potential,” Kashchenko said. “These are growing markets and we are interested.”
