Bloomberg News: Gazprom catapults into elite group: "The state-controlled Russian company's London-traded American depositary receipts advanced 8.7 percent to $91.60, valuing the company at $217 billion. That makes the Moscow-based company the seventh-biggest in the world, just behind Royal Dutch Shell.": Posted Friday January 13, 2006

Russian energy giant joins world's top 10 companies in market value

Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas producer, overtook Wal-Mart Stores and Procter & Gamble Co. to join the world's 10 largest companies by market value after its shares surged in London and Moscow.

The state-controlled Russian company's London-traded American depositary receipts advanced 8.7 percent to $91.60, valuing the company at $217 billion. That makes the Moscow-based company the seventh-biggest in the world, just behind Royal Dutch Shell.

President Vladimir Putin is trying to build Gazprom into an international energy provider big enough to compete with Exxon Mobil, whose $379 billion of market value makes it the world's biggest publicly traded company.

Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas, rattled the continent on New Year's Day by cutting supplies to Ukraine, the main gateway for its exports to countries such as Germany and Italy.

"The publicity surrounding the Ukrainian crisis probably contributed about $20 billion to Gazprom's market value," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank, a Moscow-based brokerage. "The crisis raised Gazprom's profile around the world and a lot of investors are buying shares as a result."

Moscow-based Gazprom, created out of the Soviet gas ministry in 1991, holds 16 percent of the world's known reserves.

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