Russian gas goliath Gazprom raked in $3 billion Friday selling shares to an unknown mystery buyer in an unconventional share deal. Gazprom sold 3.6% of its own shares in a 188 billion ruble ($3 billion) deal, almost completing a share-offloading program announced in the summer by CEO Alexey Miller, the firm confirmed in submissions to the Moscow stock exchange. Almost 500 investors applied to purchase the shares during a seven-hour window for bids Thursday. The sale concerns Gazprom’s so-called “quasi-Treasury” shares, which do not qualify for dividend payments. Market submissions show the shares were sold at 220 rubles a piece — a 13.2% discount on Thursday’s closing market price. The entire $3 billion worth of shares were bought by a single buyer.

Bloomberg and Russian business paper RBC reported that a similar sale of Gazprom shares in July that raised $2.2 billion went to a firm connected to oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, President Vladmir Putin’s former judo training partner. Rotenberg, whose firms have been long-time contractors for Gazprom, denied he was behind the purchase. Regarding the fresh sale, one analyst told The Bell: “The market is again talking about Rotenberg” while another said it was “100% an inside deal.” The speed of the secondary sale further suggests Gazprom already had an “anchor investor” lined-up, Alexander Losev, general director of Sputnik Capital Management said. Gazprom hinted at a future share sale on Wednesday, launched the transaction on Thursday — giving investors only seven hours to lodge purchase applications during Moscow trading hours — and completed the $3 billion sale Friday. “As in July, there was no pre-marketing or large-scale distribution of information to a wide range of investors,” Losev said. “Therefore, we can conclude that there [were] anchor investors and the rest have little chance.”