Translated material
Look everyone!
RussNeft published the parameters of the export contract
Russneft announced yesterday that by the end of the year it will sell 4 million tons of oil to its English trader Russneft (UK) Ltd. for $2 billion. We are talking about approximately 85% of the oil exported by the company, which will be sold at $68.5 per barrel. According to Vremya Novostey's source, the British trader, despite the name, is affiliated with Glencore. Russneft has always exported oil through this trader . And Glencore provided loans to the structures of the former president of the oil company, Mikhail Gutseriev, to purchase assets. As to why the company has now demonstratively revealed to whom it will sell oil and at what prices, expert opinions differ. Some believe that this indicates that the deal for the purchase of RussNeft by the structures of Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element is approaching: part of the tax claims have already been paid off, and now this deal is “pumping” money to Glencore. Others believe that in this way the company officially shows the tax authorities the price of oil sales in order to avoid claims in the future.The Russneft statement states that the sale of export oil to Russneft (UK) Ltd. will be carried out within the framework of amendments to the contract dated October 18, 2006, signed on March 27. The transaction price is 31.76% of the book value of Russneft. A company representative said that such contracts are concluded annually. However, he does not know why the deal for this year was concluded only in the last days of March. He explains the need to publish a significant fact about it by the requirements of the law, which are strictly observed by the management of the oil company. However, companies with larger export volumes have never yet disclosed the parameters of specific contracts, and no one has filed any complaints against them for this.
Meanwhile, a source familiar with the situation told Vremya Novostei that the procedure for the official transfer of Russneft under the control of the structures of Basic Element could begin as early as May. The deal was announced last summer, but has not yet taken place due to the fact that Russneft shares were arrested due to claims against the company for non-payment of taxes, as well as due to the lack of permission from the FAS (the service, as its head Igor Artemyev admitted, awaiting a court decision). At the same time, the former owner of the company, its former president Mikhail Gutseriev, as reported by various sources, sold his offshore companies that own RussNeft for $3 billion. It is not known for certain who the buyer was, but Vremya Novostey’s sources claim that these were structures representing the interests of Mr. Deripaska personally. This version is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the oil company is de facto led by its chairman of the board of directors, Alexander Korsik, a protégé of Basic Element. The appointment of him as president is not allowed by court rulings, which impose restrictions not only on transactions with Russneft shares, but also on voting with them.
The deal stalled, a source familiar with the situation told Vremya Novostey, because the company had to pay off tax debt, which would provide grounds for lifting the seizure of the shares. In addition, there were contradictions with Glencore, with whose money Mr. Gutseriev at one time acquired the assets of Russneft and whose trading services Mr. Deripaska planned to refuse (in favor, for example, of Gunvor, a Rosneft trader, and other loyal state oil companies). A source who previously worked with Mr. Deripaska is confident that the Chernoy brothers were behind Glencore in this situation, who are still trying to sue the current head of Basel in various international courts due to the alleged loss of assets in the late 1990s.
However, at the end of last year, Russneft paid off a significant part of the tax claims (it was considered guilty of non-payment of taxes in the amount of more than 20 billion rubles). As stated in the company's message published recently, in the fourth quarter it received 16.728 billion rubles. losses according to Russian reporting standards in connection with additional charges of taxes, penalties and fines based on the results of on-site tax audits for 2003-2005. In the first three quarters of last year, Russneft made a profit of 4.474 billion rubles. Thus, at the end of last year the loss amounted to 12.254 billion rubles. compared to net profit of 9.94 billion rubles received in 2006.
Thus, experts believe that the arbitration court, which is considering seven cases against Russneft, has almost no reason to refuse to lift the seizure of the company’s shares. The court, of course, can postpone consideration of cases, clinging to small details, but there is no point in doing this for tax authorities. Apparently, an agreement was reached with Glencore, which clearly expected to become a shareholder of RussNeft, by selling almost all of the company’s exported oil by the end of the year at a clearly low price. Therefore, experts believe, soon nothing will prevent Basic Element from becoming the full owner of the oil company (the consideration of claims is scheduled for May-June).
However, if the deal with Russneft (UK) Ltd. - this is a demonstration of the tax base, as other experts associated with oil trading believe, it is quite possible that the deal with Basel will happen in the fall at best.