MOSCOW, Feb 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said Friday that she sees no necessity to buy back shares of the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, and oil major Rosneft placed under so-called people’s initial public offering (IPO), RIA Novosti reported.

“Sberbank and Rosneft are trading higher than the placement price, there is no such a problem,” Nabiullina said in response to a recent order by Prime Minister’s Vladimir Putin to state-controlled VTB Bank’s management to work out a resolution for buying back shares sold to individuals as part of the IPO.

Though, Nabiullina added that she was not ready to comment on Putin’s initiative to carry out the buyback as the move was quite unexpected.

VTB Bank, the country’s second largest bank, placed 22.5% of its shares during the IPO in 2007. The shares were placed at 13.6 kopecks per share then. One public investor was to purchase the bank’s shares amounting to no less than 30,000 rubles. At that, the number of investors that acquired VTB Bank’s shares at the terms stated amounted to 120 people.

However, following the burst on the financial markets during the years following the IPO, the offering’s participants failed to receive any profits from the deal and even incurred losses. At present, VTB Bank’s shares trades at about 7 kopecks per unit.