03.11.2005
"Interfax"
President of National Oil and Gas Company Sakhaneftegaz OAO Afanasiy Maximov said Thursday to the deputies of the National Assembly of Yakutia he had some doubts as to the credibility of the rumors related to the sale of 13.22% stake possessed by Yukos-M ZAO to BIN Bank, as communicated by an Interfax correspondent from the National Assembly sitting.
"BIN Bank representatives approached us showing the documents on the deal. But we doubted that the documents were complete to confirm the deal and we suggested they come again," said A. Maximov.
The President of the Yakut company was not personally present at the meeting with the representatives of BIN Bank, as he was in China at that time.
Furthermore A. Maximov answered in the negative to the question of one of the deputies as to whether RussNeft was behind the deal. ‘I am not sure that Gutseriev (President of RussNeft Mikhail Gutseriev – IF) has anything to do with it,’ said he.
As Interfax was informed earlier by a source familiar with the situation, oil company Yukos sold out to BIN Bank the controlling interest of Sakhaneftegaz.
They say at RussNeft that their company is completely out of the deal. In 2002 its current President Mikhail Gutseriev was a minority shareholder of BIN Bank. Presently BIN Bank controls 20% of Russneft via an affiliate.
A source in Yukos confirmed the fact of the sale of Sakhaneftegaz to BIN Bank having pointed out that this stake had been sold at an understated price.
