On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Kremlin's press service reported. In particular, it is expected to discuss the sale by QHG Oil Consortium of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Swiss trader Glencore of a 14.16% stake in Rosneft to the Chinese CEFC, said a man who knows the details of this deal. Discussions on this issue on Monday waiting for a federal official. A representative of Rosneft will participate in the meeting, a person close to one of the guests knows.

The press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov did not answer Vedomosti's questions, the CEFC representative could not be contacted, all the other participants in the deal, including the banks, declined to comment.

What is the problem

QHG Oil on January 3, 2017 bought 19.5% of Rosneft from Rosneftegaz for 10.2 billion euros. Glencore spent 300 million euros on the transaction, and QIA - 2.2 billion euros, a consortium attracted 5.2 billion euros in Italy Intesa Sanpaolo, the rest - at the pool of creditors.

 Last September it became known that the Chinese private company CEFC decided to buy out 14.16% of Rosneft for 3.9 billion euros plus the equivalent of $ 4.6 billion in euros, Glencore reported. "Volatility in financial markets led to a serious devaluation of the dollar against the euro" and "quite serious" was the cost of servicing loans that QHG Oil attracted to buy in early 2017, 19.5% of Rosneft, said the chief executive of Rosneft Igor Sechin. In October last year, he expected that the deal would be closed before the end of 2017, but the process dragged on.

In September 2017, CEFC's "daughter" CEFC Hainan paid "several hundred million dollars" of QHG Oil for the start of the deal, two people who were close to different sides of the deal said. 20% of the amount (1.5 billion euros) CEFC Hainan should pay until April 1, the balance - 6.1 billion euros - until September 2018, continues one of Vedomosti's interlocutors. The employee of the large creditor QHG Oil also knows about such terms.

The deal was postponed for an indefinite period, Bloomberg reported in mid-March with reference to the China Chengxin International Credit Rating. The deal is delayed due to the risk of too much growth in the credit load of the CEFC, the rating agency wrote. It noted that the Chinese company needs a substantial initial payment and it depends significantly on the funding from abroad. VTB approved CEFC credit lines for 5.1 billion euros against a 14.16% stake in Rosneft.

The deal with the Chinese should close before the end of February 2018, told the sources of Vedomosti at the beginning of the year. Glencore in the report named a new deadline for the deal - the first half of 2018.

 Soon it became known about the problems of CEFC: the founder of the company E Jianmin interrogated the Chinese special services, wrote the Chinese media, then Reuters reported, and the sources of Vedomosti confirmed the arrest of the businessman. Interlocutors "Vedomosti" close to the CEFC, said that E Jianming under house arrest, remove restrictions from him at the end of March.

During this time it turned out that the future shareholder of Rosneft had a new co-owner - Huarong Asset Management. It is controlled by the state China Life Insurance and the Ministry of Finance of China. Huarong Asset Management acquired an additional issue of CEFC Hainan - 36.2% of the shares. The deal was not disclosed, but the charter capital of CEFC Hainan increased by $ 1.52 billion (9.6 billion yuan).

CEFC structures delay the redemption of bonds: according to Bloomberg, CEFC Shanghai International Group Ltd. and Shanghai CEFC Group Commercial Factoring Ltd. this week missed payments totaling 85 million yuan ($ 13.4 million).