President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has  signed a decree which, amongst other things will change the shareholding pattern of the country’s largest diamond mining company Alrosa -- and the largest rough diamond producer in the  world by volume --  reported Russian News agency TASS  last week.

According to the report, the Russian state’s share in Alrosa could be reduced to 33.001%, from the current 44%. The other shareholders in the Company are (current patterns) the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - 25%; Yakutian districts - 8%; while around 23% of the company’s shares are said to be “in free float”.

This news comes on the back of earlier TASS reports which indicated that there was some difference of opinion between Russia's Finance Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry – with the former objecting to the latter’s proposal of privatising 18.9% of the shares of Alrosa and wanting to limit it to 10.9% of the shares.

TASS states that Alrosa held an IPO in late 2013, at which time the world's leading funds purchased shares of the Company. “During the IPO Alrosa sold a 16% stake for $1.3 bln, which was the largest placement in the history of the Moscow Stock Exchange and the largest in Russia since 2006,” TASS said.