02.11.2005
"Gazeta"
Mikhail Gutseriev appears to have nothing to do with it.
Oil company Yukos has sold out the controlling interest of Sakhaneftegaz. As the Gazeta has come to know, the buyer turns out to be BIN Bank acting in the interests of its client. The name of the client is kept secret. According to our source though, RussNeft controlled by Mikhail Gutseriev (its 20% stake is possessed by BIN Bank via an affiliate, RussNeft having been considered as the main aspirant after the shares of Sakhaneftegaz) has nothing to do with the deal.
At RussNeft indeed they speak about being out of the deal.
National Oil and Gas Company Sakhaneftegaz OAO was registered in 1994. The government of Yakutia owns 36.67% of the company via the Republic’s Privity Ministry. Yukos used to control 50.38% stake of Sakhaneftegaz via affiliated Yukos-M ZAO (13.22%), Cyprus-registered Kampione Holdings Ltd. (19.89%) and Empusa Enterprises Ltd. (17.27%).
‘We have nothing to do with this asset, we haven’t bought anything,’ RussNeft’s representative Edward Sarkisov said to the Gazeta.
As the client in whose interests BIN Bank acted experts mention diamond monopolist Alros. As far back as July President of the holding company Alexander Nichiporuk said that his company was talking to Yukos about purchasing Sakhaneftegaz shares. Actually Alros opened consultations with representatives of Sakhaneftegaz’ shareholders, which were called successful. However at that time a Yukos representative disproved this communication.
Whoever turns out to be the final buyer, it is evident that the stake has been bought for a very low price. Thus, sources familiar with the details of the deal inform that the controlling interest of Sakhaneftegaz possessed by Yukos was sold out at an understated price. Yukos is said to have received only about $6 million for the entire stake of Sakhaneftegaz, which is not a surprise taking into account the debts of Yakutia’s company and its subsidiaries to Yukos for an amount of 3.2 million rubles.
