Baku, June 20, AZERTAC

Russia's state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, has sold 49 percent of its shares in the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project Monday to a Turkish consortium, according to Daily Sabah.

Under the agreement signed on the sidelines of the IX International Forum ATOMEXPO 2017 in Moscow, members of the Cengiz-Kolin-Kalyon (CKK) consortium will each hold an equal share of 16.3 percent.

"We said that we may sign an agreement on the sidelines of today's forum. These are not potential [investors] anymore, these are real, these are the three largest construction holdings in Turkey; Cengiz Holding, Kolin and Kalyon. A consortium of these three companies will buy 49 percent of our Akkuyu company. It will happen tonight," head of debt financing and investments department at Rusatom Energy International Anastasiya Polovinkina was quoted as saying by Russian information agency Rambler News Service (RNS).

Polovinkina added that the remaining 51 percent of the shares would be held by Russian companies.

She also said that the construction of Akkuyu will be funded with investments from export credit agencies, as well as through commercial loans from banks. Commercial bank loans would be mostly spent on construction and installation works.

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia would invest a total of $22 billion in the Akkuyu project.

The first deputy head of Rosatom Kirill Komarov said that the state-run company planned to launch the first unit of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2023.

"If everything goes well, we are going to launch the first bloc in 2023, on the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey," Komarov said.