Gazprom, IES to bid jointly for TGK-7 -source

MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuters) - Russian investment firm Integrated Energy Systems and gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) will jointly bid for power producer TGK-7 (VTGK.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) and have set up a vehicle to do so, a source close to TGK-7 said on Friday.

The partners have emerged as the most active investors in Russia's liberalised power sector, but this would be their first joint move to buy an electricity asset.

The source told Reuters the two had already set up an investment firm that will enter their joint bid for the government's 32 percent stake in TGK-7, to be sold next month.

The price of the stake is likely to be 2.848 roubles per share, or $456 per kilowatt of TGK-7's generating capacity, the same as the price of the new share sale TGK-7 held last week.

IES, the investment vehicle of oil and metals magnate Viktor Vekselberg, already owns 23 percent of TGK-7, and bid for all of the new shares sold on March 14.

TGK-7 is one of 20 major electricity producers being sold off by the former power monopoly, Unified Energy System (UES) EESR.MM, amid a sweeping reform of the sector that is seeking to raise investment and introduce a competitive market.

Gazprom and IES have separately acquired some of the choicest of these companies, threatening to partly remonopolise the sector, which has drawn scrutiny from Russia's antitrust watchdog.

Gazprom has secured effective control of four of the 20 large power producers, including the main suppliers of electricity to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

IES has bought up effective control of three, while all of the other strategic investors acquiring UES assets have each gained control of only one firm so far. (Reporting by Olga Popova, writing by Simon Shuster, editing by Will Waterman)