Returning from the South

Kuban assets of Yukos will be offered to Rosneft

The company of LUKOIL top managers , Promregion Holding, will definitely not receive the southern assets of YUKOS , despite the fact that on May 3 it won the corresponding auction, offering 4.9 billion rubles. As is known, the FAS did not allow her to carry out the transaction due to the fact that, in the service’s opinion, unreliable information was presented about the economic activities of Promregion Holding. Yesterday, the office of the YUKOS bankruptcy manager reported that the committee of creditors recommended offering these assets one by one to other auction participants at the maximum price determined as a result of the auction, i.e. for 4.9 billion rubles. The first such offer can be received by the participant who offered the price preceding the price of the auction winner, i.e. “granddaughter” of Rosneft, Neft-Aktiv company . If she does not accept this offer, then a similar offer can be made to the third bidder - the unknown Versar company. “If none of the auction participants accepts the offer to purchase the property at the price of the auction winner within the established time frame, the auction results will be canceled and new auctions must be held,” the message says. As Nikolai Lashkevich, press secretary of the YUKOS bankruptcy trustee, explained to Vremya Novostey, the period given to each of the bidders to make a purchase decision is three working days.

The southern lot included blocking stakes in Kuban electric power companies, as well as 100% of the shares of Stavropolnefteprodukt, the Val Shatskogo field and 49.9% of the shares of the Caspian Oil Company. Promregion Holding was interested primarily in the latter asset, because LUKOIL also owns 49.9% of the shares of KNK (another 0.2% belongs to Gazprom), and Vagit Alekperov’s company has repeatedly accused YUKOS of not investing in the development of the project. In addition, at the beginning of this year, Promregion Holding became a blocking shareholder in Kuban electric power enterprises and, thanks to the auction, was going to consolidate control over them. So, it is quite possible that he will have to take Rosneft as a partner. The state oil company commented on the bankruptcy trustee's decision with restraint, saying only that the proposal will be analyzed by the company's management. “The decision will be officially announced in the near future,” a Rosneft representative told Vremya Novostey.

However, it is still difficult to imagine that the state-owned company will be ready for such a scenario. After all, then she will have to pay the price that she previously refused and which her investment committee on the board of directors did not recommend paying.

The headquarters of the YUKOS bankruptcy manager claims that cases in which the antimonopoly authorities refuse permission for a transaction to the auction winner are not provided for by Russian legislation. So the creditors' committee issued clarifications in case "situations of this kind" were repeated. Now FAS permission is being sought by two more companies that won auctions: Unitex, which won the auction for regional networks of Yukos gas stations for 12.8 billion rubles, and Prana, which became the winner in the famous auction for the sale of the Moscow offices of the bankrupt, during which the price of the lot increased almost five times to a sky-high 100.09 billion rubles. ($3.9 billion). Yesterday, Mr. Lashkevich reported that Prana had already concluded a purchase and sale agreement with the bankruptcy trustee. Now, within 14 days, she must provide Mr. Rebgun not only with data on the transfer of funds, but also with permission from the FAS. Last Monday, the head of the service, Igor Artemyev, said that so far his department had not been able to clarify the ownership structure of both companies, and officials were forced to demand clarification from them. If companies fail to disclose their shareholders by May 28, they may suffer the same fate as Promregion Holding. Then the gas stations could go to the Anglo-Dutch Shell, and the YUKOS real estate could go to Rosneft. However, 100 billion rubles. for real estate can seriously affect the financial condition of a state-owned company.

Meanwhile, the state has taken up the distribution of funds that the Federal Tax Service will receive as the main creditor of YUKOS. This amount is no less than 429 billion rubles. (approximately $16.5 billion). Yesterday, the State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to the law “On the Federal Budget for 2007”, allowing for the centralization of this money in the federal budget. As Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said, this amount will be spent on the purposes specified in Vladimir Putin’s message to the Federal Assembly, namely: 250 billion rubles. will be allocated to the program for relocating citizens from dilapidated housing and for the repair of housing stock, another 100 billion rubles. - for the development of nanotechnology. Mr. Kudrin did not say where the state plans to allocate the remaining 70 billion rubles. The government will submit specific proposals for the distribution of funds from the sale of the oil company's assets to the State Duma after the funds are actually transferred to the federal budget. It is expected that the Ministry of Finance will have time to do this by the second reading of the amendments.

Yesterday, the “granddaughter” of Rosneft, LLC Neft-Aktiv, won another auction - for the sale of service, transport and communication assets of YUKOS, offering 1.803 billion rubles for them. with a starting price of 1.669 billion rubles. In addition to Rosneft, certain companies Tekhniks LLC and Akkord LLC took part in the auction.

Anna GORSHKOVA