CEO of Gazprom natural gas giant Alexey Miller (left) talks to his counterpart in YUKOS oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky (right) during a meeting of the Russian State Council (Gossovet), a supreme state consulting body, June 15, 2003.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Italians Buy YUKOS Lot
The winner in yesterday's auction of the second lot of YUKOS property was Gazprom. Formally, an Italian consortium of Eni and Enel bought a 20-percent share in Gazprom Neft, 100-percent shares in Artkigaz and Urengoil and share packages in 15 small companies for $5.828 billion (4.6 percent above the starting price). But the Russian gas monopoly made an agreement with the Italians ahead of time to receive control over the assets they bought. Until now, only Rosneft has received YUKOS assets. Experts believe that the outcome of the auction was planned in advance and that Rosneft will receive the remainder of YUKOS assets.
The auction commission reported that three companies participated in the auction. They were OOO Yuniteks, OOO Nefttreidgrupp and OOO Enineftegaz. Early that morning, NOVATEK, a 19-percent share in which belongs to Gazprom, issued a statement that it had acquired Yuniteks the day before. Nefttreidgrupp is affiliated with Rosneft and Enineftegaz until recently belonged to Eni. ZAO Trans Nafta paid the $1.1-billion deposit to participate in the auction but, according to the Russian Federal Property Fund, the organizer of the auction, the auction commission decided the day before the auction not to allow it to participate. At Trans Nafta, they say that they made the decision themselves.
Bidding began at 144.776 billion rubles and ended at 151.536 billion rubles. Yuniteks made only two bids. Rosneft had indicated strong interest in the lot before the auction, but company spokesmen stated after the auction that its investment committee had set a limit on its bidding.
Gazprom announced before the bidding had ended that it had concluded an agreement with Enel and Eni to receive an option to buy the property of the second lot if Enineftegaz won the auction. Specifically, deputy chairman of the monopoly Alexander Medvedev explained, it had an option “without conditions and not dependent on anything” for the purchase of the Gazpron Neft shares and “at least 51 percent” of shares in the gas company.
A “Siberian” lot of YUKOS assets, consisting of the Tomskneft production company and the Angar refinery, will go on the block in May. Both Rosneft and Gazprom have expressed interest in it. But “the main lots are so significant that there is no place there for chance,” commented Troika Dialog analyst Valery Nesterov.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 05, 2007
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