All roads lead to Rosneft

Sergei Bogdanchikov negotiates the purchase of Yukos assets that went to unknown companies

Rosneft, it seems, will be the sole owner of all Yukos assets , with the exception of gas. As the president of the state oil company Sergei Bogdanchikov said yesterday, he is negotiating with the owners of Prana (bought the buildings and trading houses of YUKOS) about the purchase of part of the bankrupt assets it bought, and the owners of Unitex (bought the network of YUKOS gas stations in Central Russia) about the purchase of this companies. Thus, as in 2004 with the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, YUKOS assets ultimately end up in Rosneft. Therefore, we can safely assume that behind these unknown companies, as in their time behind Baikalfinancegroup, there are “individuals, but these are individuals who have been involved in business in the energy sector for many years” - this is how Vladimir Putin described the winners in 2004 auction for the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, which practically few people knew except him. If the sellers make a profit as a result of transactions with Rosneft, then the entire scheme could be qualified as a withdrawal of funds from the state oil company in favor of the owners of these mysterious companies.

Sergei Bogdanchikov said yesterday in an interview with the Vesti channel that the company is negotiating with Prana LLC about the purchase of YUKOS assets acquired by the latter during the May auction. As you know, the mysterious “Prana” defeated “Rosneft” in a three-hour battle for the lot with real estate and Moscow assets of YUKOS, offering no less than 100.09 billion rubles. ($3.9 billion). Then this amount seemed astronomical to Rosneft, and the state-owned company dropped out of the fight for these assets. As Mr. Bogdanchikov said a little later, Rosneft fought not so much for the 22-story building on Dubininskaya Street, but for the property listed on the balance sheet of Moscow “subsidiaries” of YUKOS, namely “several thousand tanks, several hundred million dollars of cash on the accounts of the trading house, unrefunded VAT of several hundred million dollars, accounts receivable over $1 billion and 500 thousand tons of petroleum product residues at the bases of the trading house.” Yesterday, the head of the company refused to specify what exactly attracted the oil company from this list. “We believe that if we can finally agree with Prana to buy what we want, it will be a deal with profitability within the limits accepted in our company,” he said mysteriously. “We intend to acquire—and we are not deviating from our line—a significant portion of the assets.”

Mr. Bogdanchikov did not disclose with whom exactly he was negotiating. “We are negotiating with the owner or top managers of Prana; to be honest, we are not particularly interested in who they are,” Interfax quotes him. At the same time, the head of the company especially emphasized that Prana is an independent structure from which Rosneft is buying out part of the business, and not itself, as was the case with Baikalfinancegroup. In turn, a source in Rosneft emphasized that negotiations are not taking place at the level of Prana General Director Vladimir Yesakov, but with its beneficiaries.

But such an approach - purchasing assets at a higher price than they would cost based on the results of the auction (after all, Prana is unlikely to sell assets at a loss) - raises many questions. However, Rosneft has a debt of $34 billion, and it is difficult for it to buy assets at high prices. Mr. Bogdanchikov yesterday already complained about the high cost of the assets that Prana bought at the auction: “The Trading House itself alone will cost more than $1 billion, plus gas stations in Moscow and the Moscow region and a number of other assets.”

It should be taken into account that in addition to Prana, Rosneft is planning to buy the Unitex company in the near future, which won the auction for the sale of the Yukos gas station network. “We are in the final stages of negotiations with the Unitex company, and it seems to us that this transaction can be completed in the near future,” said Mr. Bogdanchikov. Rosneft itself was going to participate in this auction, but on the appointed day its representatives never appeared in the auction room. And immediately after the auction, the company announced that it would buy out gas stations, and explained its refusal to participate in the auction by the unverified financial flows of these enterprises. So it is obvious that the deal will be completed after Rosneft, as a creditor, receives more than $10 billion due to it from YUKOS bankruptcy manager Eduard Rebgun. However, Mr. Rebgun’s headquarters has not yet announced when the payment will be made.

Anna GORSHKOVA