Posted on 05/05/2006 6:05:27 AM PDT by vertolet
MOSCOW -- Tarred as a tool in the Kremlin's drive for international influence, OAO Gazprom has politicians in Europe and the U.S. seeing red. But for many foreign investors, the Russian natural-gas giant brings to mind an altogether different color: green.
Gazprom stock is up about 70% this year after the Kremlin in January lifted restrictions that had prevented many foreigners from buying the 49% of the company that isn't government-owned. Gazprom's market value has overtaken Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC and, at $289 billion, is second only to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s among international energy companies. (It is the third-largest company in the world, behind Exxon and General Electric Co.)
Money has poured in despite Gazprom's increasingly rough behavior with some of its biggest customers.
In January, the company cut off shipments to Ukraine in a price dispute, briefly reducing exports to Europe, where governments began to question Gazprom's reliability as a supplier for the first time in more than 30 years. In recent weeks, Gazprom officials, backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, have publicly threatened to push into Asia, complaining that Europe, which gets a quarter of its gas from Russia, is trying to block Gazprom's efforts to expand.
The tough talk isn't scaring investors. Even after the surge so far this year, many are betting that things are just getting going.
"I think we're about to begin a new ride," says Peter Halloran, who runs Pharos Financial, a Moscow fund manager that is a big Gazprom holder. "Over the next year or two, 50% upside...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Investing in gazprom is like playing russian roulette, except you have 5 bullets in the gun, instead of 1.
hmmm let's see - they got the worlds largest resource of natural gas - they got a former german prime minister as a consultant and are about to buy into the suppliers of europe big time - europes alternatives in that buisness are libyia, iran and egypt to a smller part - and of course what's left in the northern sea...
gazprom has a comparable market capitalization to microsoft and general electric
wow what a bad investment ;-)
I am glad that my money just doubled.
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