Translated material
Single Chairman Meeting
Viktor Gerashchenko advocated the sale of Yukos to Rosneft
A meeting of shareholders of YUKOS, which is awaiting bankruptcy, took place yesterday at the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel in an almost empty conference room. Top managers have been outside Russia for a long time, fearing persecution by the prosecutor's office. Therefore, for the first time, only one person sat on the presidium - the chairman of the board of directors, Viktor Gerashchenko. He voiced the agenda, read the report for the holding's managers and answered questions from shareholders. The meeting took place in record time - less than two hours.However, during this time, Mr. Gerashchenko managed to make several politically loud statements. The main thing is about the future fate of the company. “With a balance sheet like Yukos's, under Russian law the company must be liquidated,” he said. - Moreover, we wanted to liquidate it so that it would go to the shareholders, and not to the bailiffs. However, our shareholder - Sibneft - blocked this decision (at the end of 2004 - Ed. ), and therefore the fate of the holding will be decided at a meeting of creditors. I believe that the most reasonable way out of this situation would be a direct sale of the entire YUKOS to the state-owned Rosneft, no matter how it would be financed. Even if the Central Bank gives loans to state banks. And let Rosneft do with it what it sees fit.” According to him, YUKOS was negotiating with Rosneft on the sale of 23.1% of the preferred shares of Yuganskneftegaz to the state company, as well as with Gazprom on the assignment of 20% of the shares of Sibneft owned by YUKOS, but so far the parties have not reached any agreement. or agreement. “Gazprom is in no hurry, I don’t know whether it’s of its own free will or not,” noted Mr. Gerashchenko. “We talked with people who know what is happening on the market, and I believe them, someone is buying up Yukos shares in order to collect a stake.”
The future of the company, according to Mr. Gerashchenko, will be determined by a meeting of creditors scheduled for July 27. It will have to decide what measure to recommend to the court to apply in relation to YUKOS: to introduce a financial recovery procedure proposed by the company's management, a procedure of external management or bankruptcy. “In my opinion, this will happen after the G8 meeting. But this (meeting of creditors - Ed. ) is just that, an association,” Interfax quotes him as saying. However, YUKOS interim manager Eduard Rebgun assured Vremya Novostei yesterday that the date for the creditors' meeting has not yet been determined. According to him, first the court must consider and approve the claims of all creditors in order to finally form their council. According to the temporary manager, the last court hearing on this issue is scheduled for July 12. However, he does not rule out that the meeting of creditors could actually take place at the end of next month. It is quite possible that the main creditor - Rosneft-owned Yuganskneftegaz - will not make any negative steps from the point of view of investors in the run-up to the IPO of the state oil company and will make efforts to delay the bankruptcy of Yukos for several weeks.
As Mr. Gerashchenko assures, there will be no changes in the company's top management - President Stephen Theede is not going to leave his post. The head of the board of directors, in his characteristic figurative manner, said: “Tidi is not the kind of person to give up. The Americans don’t give up at all, they will bomb and leave on their own. He will remain in his post, I’m sure we communicate often. Another thing is that it is impossible to manage day-to-day from London. Just as it is impossible for other managers who are there in voluntary exile.” But Mr. Gerashchenko did not develop the idea of managing YUKOS.
But he said that at the end of 2005 the company received a net loss of 95 billion rubles. In connection with this, shareholders approved a recommendation not to pay dividends for last year. The company "Horvat MKPTSN" was approved as the auditor of YUKOS for 2005-2006, since PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was supposed to perform these duties last year, did not conclude the necessary agreement with YUKOS.
The new auditor’s report notes: “The company’s statements do not accurately reflect the financial position as of December 31, 2005 and the results of its financial and economic activities for the period from January 1 to December 31 inclusive and, thus, cannot be recognized as complying with the requirements of Russian legislation.” At the same time, as Konstantin Afanasyev, a lawyer at Grigoriev and Partners, notes, “an audit does not replace control over the reliability of financial statements carried out by government authorities; the purpose of the audit is to express an opinion on the reliability of the statements of the audited entities.” At the same time, he notes, “one can recall the case of the American company Enron, which indicated false information in its reporting, and if the consequences of violations in the case under consideration are comparable, the issue may move into the criminal legal aspect.”
Also, the conclusion of “Horvat MKPTSN” states that “the value of the company’s net assets as of December 31, 2004 and December 31, 2005 is below the established minimum amount of authorized capital, which may lead to the liquidation of the company.”
However, Mr. Gerashchenko does not undertake to predict the future of YUKOS: “On June 21, 1941, everyone, in general, felt good, and no one could even imagine that the next morning there would be war. So I can’t tell you what will happen to YUKOS.”
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An American court cannot consider the claim of YUKOS minority shareholders , Russian defendants believe. Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Alexey Miller, First Vice President of Rosneft Nikolai Borisenko and a number of Russian officials who are defendants in the lawsuit of minority shareholders of YUKOS sent petitions to the District of Columbia (USA) court to dismiss the claim. As stated in the court materials available to INTERFAX-ANI , all defendants believe that the US court does not have jurisdiction for such proceedings. According to the defendants' filings, government officials have sovereign immunity and also did not take any action within the District of Columbia, "therefore they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the local court." The defendants also advocate for a speedy end to the trial. Earlier, representatives of the Russian Federation, Gazprom, Rosneft, Rosneftegaz, as well as the Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko, the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin and the President of Rosneft Sergei Bogdanchikov filed a similar petition in court. As you know, 12 minority shareholders - owners of YUKOS ADRs in October 2005 filed a lawsuit in an American court, accusing the Russian Federation, Gazprom, Rosneft, Gazpromneft, Rosneftegaz, Baikalfinancegroup, as well as a number Russian officials for illegal seizure of property without compensation for damage caused. The plaintiffs estimate their losses at $3 million.