MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, Igor Sechin, has bought 0.0075 percent of the company’s stock for the first time since becoming Rosneft chairman in 2004, the state-controlled oil major said in a statement.

Rosneft said Friday that Sechin, 52, had invested his pay bonus to buy some 794,863 shares worth an estimated 186 million rubles ($5.56 million).

According to the statement, personal investments in Rosneft stock by the company’s executives are part of the company’s corporate culture reflecting their confidence in the growth and performance of the company.

Under Sechin’s leadership, Rosneft has become the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer with its acquisition of Russia’s third-largest oil firm TNK-BP. The company now has a market value of $73.2 billion.

In July, Rosneft reported an IFRS net profit of 137 billion rubles ($4 billion) in January-June 2013, up 18 percent from the same period last year. Its revenues rose 34 percent to 1.988 trillion rubles ($61 billion) during the same period.