MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian bank VTB (MM:VTBR) took part in last year's deal for trading house Glencore (L:GLEN) and Qatar's state investment fund (QIA) to buy a stake in Rosneft (MM:ROSN), RIA news agency cited a Rosneft spokesman as saying on Tuesday.
Contacted by Reuters, VTB declined to comment, and Rosneft sent a statement saying the deal was structured in such a way as to avoid causing volatility on the foreign exchange market.
Vedomosti newspaper reported late on Monday that VTB had helped launch the privatisation of Rosneft by lending 692 billion roubles (9.63 billion pounds) on Dec. 15 to the joint venture between Glencore and the QIA that bought the Rosneft stake.
The sale of the 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft, the world's largest listed oil producer, was heralded by Russian officials as the jewel in the crown of Russia's 2016 privatisation programme to plug holes in the state budget.
It had been unclear how the giant transaction was financed.
Rosneft said earlier that trading giant Glencore and the QIA paid 10.2 billion euros for the 19.5 percent stake.