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LUKOIL-Uralsib Partners at Final Stage of Separation
Vagit Alekperov and Nikolay Tsvetkov are completing the separation of their joint business, a process they began a year ago. LUKOIL announced yesterday that company president Alekperov had purchased $1.401 billion worth of company stock and that board member Tsvetkov had sold stock worth $1.233 billion. This is the key transaction in the split of the partners.
Tsvetkov intends to use part of the proceeds from the deal to buy out Alekperov's share in Uralsib. Alekperov's purchase of stock from Tsvetkov will help him and company vice president Leonid Fedun preserve their blocking package in LUKOIL in case of an additional stock issue.
Tsvetkov and Alekperov began to work together in the early 1990s. They say Tsvetkov began managing Alekperov's finances. In 1994-1995, while president of NIKoil (the predecessor of Uralsib), Alekperov became head of the LUKOIL bond department. In 1996, he became vice president and head of the main department of financial management and investment activity at LUKOIL. Simultaneously, Tsvetkov was building up a banking empire along with Alekperov.
The first sign of division came in the autumn of 2005, when Fuad Akhundov, one of the top executives at Uralsib, left the organization. The Azeri had been specially brought in by Alekperov. Analysts saw possible disagreements between the owners behind his departure.
Half a year later, news of the exchange of assets emerged. Then LUKOIL executives began to close their accounts at Uralsib and sell their shares in Uralsib investment funds. A Kommersant source says that no less than $1 billion has left the bank in the last year and gone to the LUKOIL-affiliated Capital investment house and Petrocommerce Bank, as well as to Sberbank. Nonetheless, there have been no public scandals between Alekperov and Tsvetkov.
According to the Dengi financial weekly rating of banks, as of April 1, 2007, Uralsib was the sixth-ranked bank both in its net assets (311.5 billion rubles) and its own capital (35.8 billion rubles). Approximately 90 percent of the bank belongs to Tsvetkov, 7 percent to Alekperov and 3 percent to Bashkortostan authorities. It provides banking, investment, insurance and licensing services.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 04, 2007
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