Tomskneft remained with Rosneft

The state-owned company admitted that it did not enter into a deal with Vnesheconombank

President of the state-owned Rosneft Sergei Bogdanchikov admitted yesterday that his company never sold a 50% stake in Tomskneft to Vnesheconombank , despite the fact that on July 2 it issued a press release about the deal as a fait accompli. This fact, by the way, was immediately denied by the management of VEB. “Rosneft still has 100% (of Tomskneft shares - Ed. ). We would like to complete the deal. For now, VEB remains our counterparty,” Mr. Bogdanchikov now says.

Rosneft was going to sell half of Tomskneft to VEB in order not to resort to borrowing when purchasing Yukos assets from a certain Prana LLC - it bought at auction the bankrupt office on Dubininskaya Street in Moscow and a number of his Moscow “subsidiaries”, whose accounts contained more than half a billion dollars. The deal with Prana (if, of course, it took place) cost Rosneft $3.4 billion (not all assets were resold to the state-owned company).

The oil company's press release dated July 2 stated: Rosneft announces the sale of 50% of the shares of Tomskneft VNK OJSC to Vnesheconombank (VEB). The parties agreed to jointly make management decisions on the main issues of development of Tomskneft and on the principles of rotation of key personnel positions of the enterprise. Upon completion of the transaction, which is being implemented through Neft-Aktiv LLC, which is part of the Rosneft group, the company will account for the results of Tomskneft’s activities as part of its reporting according to US GAAP standards on an equity basis.”

On the same day, the VEB press service denied this message. And the head of the bank, Vladimir Dmitriev, said a week later: “This asset does not appear on VEB’s balance sheet, so we are not considering this transaction, VEB’s money is not involved in it.” He, however, added: “At certain stages we were involved in the development of schemes related to this asset.” However, the question of what happened to the 50% stake in Tomskneft was recommended to be addressed to Rosneft.

The oil company, in turn, insisted that the information specified in its press release was reliable, but categorically refused to provide details of the transaction and comment on its progress. However, she soon announced new borrowings, explaining them as debt restructuring.

Now Mr. Bogdanchikov has actually admitted that in the summer he was wishful thinking.

Ivan GORDEEV