YUKOS Goes to Rosneft
// The state oil company gets almost all YUKOS assets
The sell-off of the main YUKOS production enterprises was completed yesterday. All the most significant of them went to Rosneft, making it the leader among Russian producers and refiners. Even YUKOS sales outlets, which Rosneft turned down at the last minute, may end up with it in the end. In addition, it may get the YUKOS electricity assets in Kuban that were acquired by Promregion Holding.
The Samara lot – Samaraneftegaz, tree refineries and retail chain and other regional assets, was old yesterday. Rosneft subsidiary OOO and Neft-Aktiv and OOO Versar participated in the auction. There are nine companies with the name “Versar” registered, including one in Tula that belongs to Irina Kanatchikova, a minority shareholder in the company who is its general director, Alexander Yakubovsky and Sergey Belov. That company is registered at the address of OOO Center for Legal Services, which is also headed by Kanatchikovska. Yesterday, she admitted that Versar was taking part in the auction, but refused to say whether the company was acting in its own interests or representing a client.
During the auction, 44 bids raised the price of the lot by 6.76 percent from the starting price, to 165.53 billion rubles. It was the most active bidding Rosneft has faced yet but, in the end, the state company came out of it as Russia's largest oil company. Its total production will e around 100 million tons of oil per year, and 45 million tons will be refined. LUKOIL is in second place with 90 million tons of oil produced and about 40 million tons refined. Rosneft is in negotiations with Gazprom over the transfer of Tomskneft. If that transaction takes place, Rosneft may cede its ranking for production.
Rosneft intended to bid on the second up for sale, consisting of more than 500 YUKOS filling stations and oil depots in central Russia. But it changed its mind at the last moment and did not register for the auction. Versar did the same thing. TNK-BP subsidiary TNK-Yurga, Shell subsidiary Shell Neft and Yuniteks participated in the auction, which was the fiercest battle yet over YUKOS property. The starting price of 7.7 billion rubles rose to 12.46 billion rubles in 61 bids. Yuniteks won. It has a circular ownership structure, with half of the shares in the company belonging to a Yuniteks subsidiary. The company's general director is Alexander Basmanov, who also heads a number of companies registered at the same address as Gazprombank. At one of those companies, a woman answered the telephone and said that Basmanov was in. But when she found out it was a journalist calling, she told the correspondent that he had a wrong number. At Yuniteks itself, no one answered the telephone. After the auction, company representatives declined to answer questions about their plans for the assets they acquired.
Rosneft announced after the end of the auctions that it was still interested in the YUKOS filling stations. Company representatives explained that it did not take part in the auction because the company concentrated all its efforts on acquiring the larger lots and it had not had time to assess the lot, which has a “complex legal structure of goods and money flows.” A source familiar with the situation told Kommersant that some of the assets are co-owned by closed territorial establishments (Russian abbreviation ZATO) and “ so far it's not very well understood how to manage that.” Rosneft wants assets with free titles. A source in the Gazprom group told Kommersant that Rosneft will still obtain the filling stations.
Industry experts agree that Yuniteks will simply sell the stations for a profit, although they are not all agreed that the stations will be acquired by Rosneft. Analysts suggest that the company may sell the stations for up to $900,000 each. TNK-BP and Shell paid $1-1.78 million for filling stations in St. Petersburg last year. The stations may also be sold to various buyers. A high-placed baking source said yesterday that LUKOIL held an option on the acquisition of Yuniteks as of yesterday. LUKOIL representatives declined to comment on that information.
Rosneft may also acquire YUKOS electricity assets in Kuban. They were purchased by Promregion Holding, but Nikolay Lashkevich, press secretary for YUKOS bankruptcy manager Eduard Rebgun, said that he was informed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service on May 8 that Promregion had been refused the purchase. The FAS told Kommersant that the rejection of Promregion Holding was connected with “incomplete provision of information, as well as the non-transparency of the ownership structure of the company and the impossibility of establishing its final beneficiaries.” Nonetheless, according to the FAS, 99 percent of Promregion Holding belongs to PIF Resource, 99 percent of which belongs to NPF LUKOIL-Garant, which control its boards. The FAS did not receive information on the membership of that board. Now, Lashkevich said, the YUKOS creditors committee has to decide whether to hold a new auction or declare Aeft-Aktiv, which had the second highest bid, the winner.
Kommersant has learned that Promregion Holding intended to file applications to participate in yesterday's auctions but then reversed itself. A source familiar with the situation claimed that “there were no obstacles to its participation in the auction from Rosneft… Although there is no doubt that the FAS decision and the withdrawal of the applications are connected. But it is not clear what exactly happened. Rosneft could have reached an agreement with the company and Promregion Holding wouldn't even have filed the applications.”
Valery Nesterov of Troika Dialog pointed out that Rosneft has a number of subsidiaries in the south of Russia, including Krasnodarneftegaz and Stavropolneftegaz, and electricity assets would help it minimize costs related to annual price hikes for electricity and to receive extra proceeds from diversification of its business. A source familiar with Rosneft's plans says, however, that, although it has not lost interest in that lot (which also includes a number of small sales outlets and geological exploration enterprises), electricity is considered a sideline. “It can still be sold profitably,” the source also noted. Experts noted that that lot was sold at half its market price.
The Selling of YUKOS
| Buyer |
Date |
Asset |
Purchase Price (billion rubles) |
Starting Price (billion rubles) |
Other Bidders |
|---|
| OAO RN-Razvitie (for Rosneft) |
March 27 |
9.44% of Rosneft and 12 Yuganskneftegaz bonds for 3.55 billion rubles |
197.8 |
195.5 |
OAO Samotlorneftegaz (TNK-BP) |
| OOO Enineftegaz (for Eni and Enel) |
April 4 |
20% of Gazprom Neft, 100% of Artikgaz, 100% of Urengoil Inc. and other natural gas assets |
151.5 |
144.8 |
OOO Yuniteks (possibly for Gazprombank), OOO Nefttreidgrupp (Rosneft) |
| No auction held for lack of bidders |
April 4 |
Alnas Elektron and other scientific production assets |
- |
0.26 |
- |
| OOO Monte-Valle |
April 17 |
Belgorodenergo and others |
3.6 |
2.6 |
OOO Finansovoe Agentstvo, OOO Versar, OOO Neft-Aktiv |
| OOO Neft-Aktiv (for Rosneft) |
April 18 |
Tyumen Region |
1.03 |
0.99 |
OOO Akkord, OOO Mortransinvest |
| No auction held for lack of bidders |
April 20 |
Assorted assets: YUKOS-Invest, ES Financial-Industrial Group, ZAO Rus, Corporate Security Service and others |
- |
0.003 |
- |
| VTB Bank of Europe PLC |
April 25 |
7.69% of VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG |
0.234 |
0.231 |
ZAO Interfin Trade Finance Co. |
| OOO JBP Inves |
April 6 |
1.998% of OAO Khanty-Mansy Bank |
0.333 |
0.163 |
OOO Orginformproekt, ZAO Tsentrinvet BS, OAO Evrofinansy Investment Co., ZAO Fondovy tsentr Infina |
| ZAO Promregion Holding* (for LUKOIL) |
May 3 |
100% of Stavropolnefteprodukt and Val Shatsky, 26.26% of Kubanenergo, Kubanenergosbyt, Kuban Generating Co. and Kuban Transmission Networks, 49.9% of Caspian Oil co. and others |
4.9 |
3.7 |
OOO Versar, OOO Neft-Aktiv |
| OOO Neft-Aktiv |
May 3 |
Tomskneft, Angar Petrochemical Co., Achinsk Oil Refinery |
175.7 |
166.3 |
OOO Yuniteks |
| OOO Yuniteks |
May 10 |
Sales enterprises in the European part of Russia, including more than 1100 gasoline filling stations |
12.5 |
7.7 |
ZAO Shell-Neft, OOO TNK-Yurga |
| OOO Neft-Aktiv |
May 10 |
Shares in 28 Volga region companies, including 100% of Samaraneftegaz, and the Syzran, Kuibyshev and Novokuibyshevsk oil refineries |
165.5 |
154.1 |
OOO Versar |
*It became known on May 10 that the FAS refused to allow the company to acquire those assets
Denis Rebrov, Ekaterina Grishkovets, Natalia Grib; Irina Paramonova, Tula
All the Article in Russian as of May 11, 2007
|
