Sovcomflot privatization adrift to 2013

Russian shipping giant Sovcomflot will be privatized no earlier than in 2013 because of unfavorable market conditions, Deputy Transport Minister Viktor Olersky said late on Tuesday. "I believe it will happen no earlier than in 2013," Olersky told journalists, adding that the sale of a 25 percent stake was now unrealistic as the tanker market had hit historical lows and the situation was unlikely to change until 2013. Privatization has been postponed once from 2011 to the second quarter of 2012 due to volatility in the financial markets. On Tuesday, central bank head Sergei Ignatyev said that the sale of a 7.6 percent stake in Russian top lender Sberbank, in which the central bank holds 57 percent, would be also postponed from September 2011 due to unfavorable market conditions.