FundWeb: JPM Emerging Markets managers cool on Gazprom

As Gazprom moves further into Europe, JP Morgan Asset Management emerging market fund managers explain why they will not touch the Russian natural gas giant.

Last week, the EU gave Gazprom the green light to acquire four oil and gas companies in the Netherlands and Germany. Meanwhile the union’s 14-month anti-trust investigation into Gazprom’s long-term contracts tied to oil prices continues.

Austin Forey, portfolio manager of the £1.2bn JPM Emerging Markets fund, says he does not believe the the Russian gas giant has the best interests of its minority shareholders at heart.

“I’ve sat across the table from the management of Gazprom and they’ve told me in almost as many words that they work for only one shareholder,” he told an emerging markets conference for IFAs in London last week.

The gas and energy giant was less a company and more its own state, he argues, which is focused on what is best for its government shareholder rather than returns to minority owners.  MORE