Not all the skin at once

Eduard Rebgun wants to give money to Yukos creditors after each auction

Rosneft is not taking much risk by attracting the largest loan in modern Russian history, $22 billion, from foreign banks to purchase Yukos assets. As the bankruptcy trustee of a bankrupt company, Eduard Rebgun, said yesterday, the legislation allows for the distribution of funds from the sale of the debtor's property among creditors as they arrive, without waiting for the completion of all auctions. Thus, Rosneft may begin to receive funds from the sale of Yukos immediately after the first auction for 9.44% of the state company’s shares, which will take place on March 27. This approach will allow Rosneft, firstly, to use the credit line of foreign banks not in full, since the funds received can be used for subsequent auctions, and secondly, to almost immediately begin repaying part of the borrowed funds.

“We will not wait for the end of all auctions,” Mr. Rebgun told Interfax yesterday. “Since there are enough funds for the bankruptcy procedure to proceed smoothly, there are enough funds to be reserved for all creditor disputes that are currently going on, so it is not advisable to hold huge funds.” The bankruptcy trustee's press secretary, Nikolai Lashkevich, clarified that Article 142 of the bankruptcy law allows the bankruptcy trustee to distribute money from auctions without waiting for all auctions to be completed. “As funds are received, the bankruptcy trustee, after consultations with the creditors’ committee, must independently decide when the money will be distributed among the creditors,” he told Vremya Novostey. -- The proceeds from the auction will be divided in proportion to the debt owed to each creditor. A corresponding entry will be made about this in the register of creditors, where the amount received, the date of receipt and the amount of debt repayment as a percentage will be indicated.” At the same time, he emphasized that the issue of the timing of the distribution of funds has not yet been discussed at the committee of creditors. “But it is clear that this issue will not be resolved before the first auction, when these funds are available and there will be something to divide,” Mr. Lashkevich noted. “It is possible that the money will go to creditors after the first auction, since YUKOS is a unique case in bankruptcies, here we are faced with a very large bankruptcy estate, with very large funds.”

Based on the fact that the initial price of the first lot for the sale of 9.44% of Rosneft shares is 195.5 billion rubles, Yukos’s debt to the state company is 264 billion rubles, and the total debt of the bankrupt is 709 billion rubles, then For this auction alone, Rosneft will receive at least 73 billion rubles. ($2.8 billion). For the second lot (20% of Gazprom Neft shares and a number of gas assets), Rosneft can receive no less than 54 billion rubles. ($2 billion).

Rosneft spoke about the desire to attract a multibillion-dollar loan for the purchase of Yukos assets at the end of last year, but only on March 15 the board of directors made a corresponding decision, according to which Rosneft itself would attract up to $13 billion, and up to $9 billion - her “granddaughter” RN-Razvitie to purchase a 9.44% stake in Rosneft from YUKOS. Both credit lines are attracted for very short terms (12 and 18 months) and at an extremely low interest rate (0.25--0.5%). This gives another reason to assume that the company intends to return these funds very quickly without using them to the end.

Anna GORSHKOVA