Trader needs shares

Glencore is going to receive up to half of Russneft as debt

The Glencore trader is going to acquire a stake in Russneft, a company that was created by the now disgraced entrepreneur Mikhail Gutseriev with loans from this trader and which was subsequently, it is believed, sold to the structures of Oleg Deripaska. Glencore's intention was reported to Interfax by a source at the Federal Antimonopoly Service, where the trader submitted a purchase request. A Vremya Novostey source familiar with the situation added that Glencore is laying claim to a non-controlling stake in Russneft - a minimum of 25% plus one share, a maximum of 50% minus one. The remaining securities are planned to be transferred to the En+ company, part of Mr. Deripaska’s Basic Element holding.

Glencore had long wanted to gain control over RussNeft, but Mr. Gutseriev did not want this. In 2003, he took out a loan of more than $2 billion from Glencore to create the company, but provided the controlling stake in RussNeft to the trader only as collateral. However, in 2005, the pledge was changed: RussNeft became obliged to sell all exported oil to Glencore for ten years (5-6 million tons out of 14 million tons per year that the company currently produces). True, the trader managed to acquire blocking stakes in almost all of RussNeft’s production and processing subsidiaries.

Now that the global financial crisis has struck, it has become very difficult for the owner of RussNeft to pay off the loan. After all, Mr. Deripaska’s agenda, as is known, includes settlement of numerous transactions and loans, while he has practically no opportunity to refinance the debt. At the same time, a Vremya Novostey source says, Glencore needs to pay about $200 million and interest on the loan. Apparently, Glencore intends to take advantage of the situation by inviting Mr. Deripaska to invest in the capital of the oil company.

It was previously alleged that Mr. Gutseriev sold Russneft to Mr. Deripaska for $3 billion, while another $3 billion was the company's debts and claims against it, which the new owner assumed. Experts then said that $6 billion was exactly the market price of the entire Russneft. Now, according to Troika Dialog analyst Valery Nesterov, the company could nominally be worth about $4 billion. Thus, Glencore is laying claim to a share worth $1-2 billion. According to a source close to RussNeft, the debt to the trader is now is “just over a billion.” Mr. Nesterov assesses such debt as “very serious”: the net debt, for example, of Gazprom Neft is $1.04 billion, TNK-BP is $1.3 billion, although these companies are several times larger than Russneft. . And this circumstance may reduce the valuation of Russneft. In addition, the claims of Samaraneftegaz, a subsidiary of Rosneft, for 5 billion rubles could also bring down the price. As various sources say, most likely, the state company will be able to return the Zapadno-Malobalykskoye field, which Mr. Gutseriev managed to buy from Yukos, which is under bankruptcy proceedings. If this happens, RussNeft’s production will decrease by about 2 million tons of oil per year, by 14%. However, there is also a factor that works to increase the value of Russneft - only its and Rosneft's production has been growing in recent months.

However, Glencore will have many difficulties in completing the deal. And the main problem is coordinating the purchase with the FAS and the government. After all, RussNeft has strategic fields, and therefore permission must be given by a special commission in the White House. As you know, the antimonopoly service has not approved the deal for the sale of Russneft shares to En+ structures for almost a year and a half. The head of the FAS, Igor Artemyev, said that he was waiting for the decision of the courts considering the claims of the tax service against companies that own shares in the oil company, because it is possible that these shares could be owned by the state. Now all the proceedings have been completed (with the exception of the criminal prosecution of Mr. Gutseriev and some of his associates), the seizure of the RussNeft shares has been lifted (it was imposed as security for the tax authorities’ claim). However, for unknown reasons, the FAS has not yet made a decision on the petition of Mr. Deripaska’s structures. How long the service will take to agree on Glencore's request is also unclear. However, a Vremya Novostei source close to Mr. Deripaska believes that it is still too early to talk about clear agreements on the deal.

Nikolay GORELOV