The board of Russia's majority state-owned diamond monopoly PJSC Alrosa on Dec. 10 approved the sale of its 99.75% stake in the Almaznaya Osen Non-State Pension Fund without indicating when the transaction could take place.

The deal will have a positive financial effect for Alrosa and result in more effective management of the fund's assets, CEO Sergey Ivanov said in a Dec. 12 news release.

Almaznaya Osen provides pension services to nearly 29,000 clients and more than 34,700 mandatory pension insureds, including current and retired Alrosa employees.

Alrosa declined a request to provide further details of the forthcoming sale by closed auction, in which only non-state funds will be invited to bid.

The winner of the auction will have to agree not to liquidate or reorganize the fund, or sell shares to third parties.

As of 2018-end, the fund's total assets stood at 29.57 billion rubles, according to its annual report.

The sale should not be material for the company, according to BCS Global Markets analyst Artem Bagdasaryan.

Alrosa's shares closed down 0.7% by Dec. 12 trading close in Moscow.

As of Dec. 12, US$1 was equivalent to 62.74 Russian rubles.