Date
Author
Николай ГОРЕЛОВ; Анна ГОРШКОВА
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Inexpensive and tasteful
The sale of assets of bankrupt Yukos begins
The second, main round of the sale of Yukos assets begins today. His first lot is 9.44% of Rosneft shares and 12 Yuganskneftegaz promissory notes worth 3.558 billion rubles. Two years, three months and eight days have passed since the day of the memorable auction, when 100% of the ordinary shares of Yuganskneftegazwere purchased by Baikalfinancegroup . As then, everyone understands: the purchase will be made in the interests of the state structure.The starting price for today's trading is $7.5 billion in ruble equivalent. A deposit of $1.5 billion was made by two contenders - the “granddaughter” of Rosneft, the company RN-Razvitie, and the subsidiary of TNK-BP , Samotlorneftegaz .
What is the interest of TNK-BP is the mystery of today's auction. Market participants assume that this is the result of a “request” that the company could not refuse. Thus, the organizers, firstly, ensured a quorum, and secondly, freed Rosneft from the need to nominate a second participant and make a second deposit. And a representative of one of the Russian oil companies says that only companies that have “passed a special selection” will participate in the sale of YUKOS assets - everything will be bought by the one who should buy it, and therefore no oil worker is interested in these auctions.
Rosneft, as is known, is ready to borrow up to $9 billion to purchase its shares from YUKOS. Apparently, Samotlorneftegaz will make one or two attempts to raise the price so that there is a semblance of competition. However, the auction step is only $10 million, so he will not be able to significantly increase the price. There is no doubt that Rosneft will buy shares cheap. Based on yesterday's quotations on the RTS, a 9.44% stake in the state oil company is worth $8.43 billion, Yuganskneftegaz bills are being sold for $136 million. If Rosneft decides to resell its own shares at the market price, it could earn almost a billion dollars. Moreover, today there is a chance to do this - a representative delegation from China headed by Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Moscow . In any case, experts believe that the company is unlikely to place this stake on stock exchanges in the foreseeable future - an increase in supply volume may have a negative impact on quotes.
Yesterday it became known that Rosneft will lay claim not only to its shares and shares of Yukos processing enterprises, but also to the production enterprises of the bankrupt company. As the press secretary of the bankruptcy trustee Eduard Rebgun, Nikolai Lashkevich, told Vremya Novostei, a proposal was submitted to the committee of creditors “to form lots with mining, service and processing assets on a territorial basis.” Mr. Rebgun considers this approach “the most attractive from the point of view of logistics and economic feasibility.”
“For example, one lot could be formed with assets in the Samara region, which could include Samaraneftegaz, Kuibyshevsky and Novokuibyshevsky oil refineries,” explained Mr. Lashkevich. However, he clarified that this proposal “is not final.” “The next committee of creditors will be held this Friday, but it is not yet known whether this issue will be submitted to it,” said the press secretary of the bankruptcy trustee. “But if so, then the auction could be held in the very last days of April, but most likely it will take place in May.”
There is no doubt that the proposal will be approved, because it plays into the hands of the same Rosneft, whose representatives sit on the committee of YUKOS creditors. This is beneficial because if a single lot was formed from production and processing assets, it would be very difficult to ensure a quorum to participate in the auction - it would be unlikely to find a company willing to make a huge deposit and then lose to Rosneft. “Breakdown” into several lots allows you to solve this problem. And if the auctions are scheduled at intervals of a week, then the problem becomes much simpler: Rosneft’s formal competitor will have time to return the deposit from one auction and deposit it again to participate in the next.
Thus, it is almost clear who will get the main core assets of the once largest oil company in Russia. The only question in this regard that is not yet obvious is the fate of YUKOS gas stations, of which there are almost two thousand. Market experts say that this is the most profitable segment of the oil business with large and fast turnover, and therefore the organizers of the YUKOS case are unlikely to want to sell it to anyone. They assume that the buyer of the gas station will be either a structure of the same Rosneft, which is unlikely, or, as Vladimir Putin put it in 2004, speaking about Baikalfinancegroup, a structure backed by individuals well known in the energy market.
Schedule of auctions announced by the Russian Federal Property Fund for the sale of Yukos assets
| April 4 | 20% shares of Gazprom Neft, Arcticgas, Urengoil and 19 other assets | 5.555 billion | Partners of Gazprom or structures affiliated with Gazprom |
| April 4 | Research | 10 million | Rosneft structures |
| April 17 | Electric power | 101 million | Structures close to LUKOIL |
| April 18 | Oil transportation and geological exploration enterprises | 380 thousand | Structures of Rosneft or other large oil companies |
| April 20 | Shares of investment companies and private security companies | 120 thousand | Impossible to predict |
| April 25 | 7.69% shares of VTB Bank Deutschland AG | 8.9 million | VTB |
| April 25 | 1.998% shares of Khanty-Mansiysk Bank | 6.3 million | Khanty-Mansiysk Bank |
*According to Vremya Novostei and several Russian investment company analysts
Italian Eni said yesterday in a joint press release with Gazprom that it “plans to announce its entry into Russian production assets in the near future.” Both companies do not specify which assets they are talking about, but, obviously, we are talking about Yukos gas enterprises, which are put up for auction on April 4. The message was made after the next working meeting of the heads of the companies Alexey Miller and Paolo Scaroni in Moscow, at which “progress in the implementation of the strategic partnership agreement” was also noted. "TIME FOR NEWS"