YUKOS creditors the Federal Tax Service and Rosneft have found a way around the drawn-out court case involving Yukos Finance, the foreign asset of the bankrupt oil company that is practically beyond the control of YUKOS bankruptcy manager Eduard Rebgun. Without waiting for a decision by the court, they have included Yukos Finance in the next lot of YUKOS assets to be auctioned off.
Analysts say Russian authorities are trying to complete the YUKOS bankruptcy, which will be impossible without the sale of Yukos Finance. They expect Rosneft to be the buyer, even while it continues the court case.
Yukos Finance Up for Sale Already
The sale of two more lots of YUKOS property was officially announced on Saturday after being assemble at a session of the company's creditors committee on Friday. On August 15, the YUKOS 13-billion ruble accounts receivable will be sold, as will the troublesome Yukos Finance, which is registered in The Netherlands and embroiled in unpredictable legal battles. After that, there will be no more significant assets left to sell, says Evgeny Neiman, head of the ROSEKO company, which assessed YUKOS.
The starting price for Yukos Finance will be 7.5 billion rubles. One of its main assets is 49 percent of the Slovakian pipeline company Transpetrol (51 percent of which belongs to the Slovakian government). Neiman said that 49 percent of Transpetrol has been assessed at $100 million (about 2.5 billion rubles). But, he added, assessing Yukos Finance as a whole was difficult. “The authority of Yukos Finance over its assets is divided. It owns them but cannot control them because they are under the management of the Stichting Administratiekantoor Yukos International fund,” Neiman explained. Therefore, it was decided to assess Yukos Finance at the size of the funds YUKOS placed in the charter capital of the company when it was founded, that is, 7.5 billion rubles.
The SAYI fund was founded in 2005. At the time of its founding, its board of directors consisted of former YUKOS president Steven Theede and former vice president for legal issues David Godfrey. Later it was made up of former YUKOS financial director Bruce Misamore and Tim Osborn, director of Group MENATEP, the main shareholder in YUKOS. The foreign assets of YUKOS, with the exception of the Transpetrol stock were transferred from Yukos Finance to its wholly-owned subsidiary Yukos International. Then all the stock in Yukos International was exchanged for depositary receipts, which Yukos Finance turned over to SAYI. If the assets of Yukos International are sold, the funds from the sale will go to the creditors, since their demands have been acknowledged in The Netherlands.
The main assets that had belonged to Yukos International was the Lithuanian Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery , which was sold in 2006 for $1.492 billion. Those funds were transferred to the depositary account of an Amsterdam court, which is supposed to distribute them to the creditors. The Cypriote Moravel Investments Ltd (part of MENATEP), which is owed $655 million by YUKOS, filed claims with the court, as did Rosneft, which bought, for $455 million, the right to claim the debts of a consortium of banks that had credited YUKOS. Rosneft initiated the YUKOS bankruptcy last year by declaring that right in Russian court.
In May, the Amsterdam court placed provisional measures on the funds and property of Yukos International at the demand of the Glendale company, headed by Misamore, in light of a €130 million suit over compensation for the securities debt of Yuganskneftegaz, the former YUKOS property that now belongs to Rosneft. It is not known what assets belong to SAYI at present. The former YUKOS managers are not submitting documents to the bankruptcy manager.
Yukos Finance itself controls its shares in Transpetrol, but Rebgun has been unable to sell them. According to Claire Davidson, representative of the former YUKOS executives, an appellate court in Amsterdam ruled that the TMF Management Co., which is now in possession of the certificate that confirms the ownership of the Transpetrol stock, is not required to hand it over to Yukos Finance representative appointed by Rebgun. Rebgun appointed two directors of the company, but the former YUKOS managers who head the company did not acknowledge the decision. Rebgun says that that certificate must be produced physically in order to sell the Transpetrol stock.
A source close to Rebgun told Kommersant that the YUKOS creditors are insisting on the sale of the company, without which the bankruptcy of the company cannot be completed. The Federal Tax Service and Rosneft are the largest creditors. Yukos Finance is being sold “as a situation,” Rebgun admits. A new owner will be participating in the numerous court proceedings connected with the company.
The number of suits may increase as well. In the auction announcement, it says that Dutch creditors “may have the opportunity not to acknowledge the sale of the stock [in Yukos Finance] and to dispute it.”
Tags: YUKOSAnalysts say Russian authorities are trying to complete the YUKOS bankruptcy, which will be impossible without the sale of Yukos Finance. They expect Rosneft to be the buyer, even while it continues the court case.
Yukos Finance Up for Sale Already
The sale of two more lots of YUKOS property was officially announced on Saturday after being assemble at a session of the company's creditors committee on Friday. On August 15, the YUKOS 13-billion ruble accounts receivable will be sold, as will the troublesome Yukos Finance, which is registered in The Netherlands and embroiled in unpredictable legal battles. After that, there will be no more significant assets left to sell, says Evgeny Neiman, head of the ROSEKO company, which assessed YUKOS.
The starting price for Yukos Finance will be 7.5 billion rubles. One of its main assets is 49 percent of the Slovakian pipeline company Transpetrol (51 percent of which belongs to the Slovakian government). Neiman said that 49 percent of Transpetrol has been assessed at $100 million (about 2.5 billion rubles). But, he added, assessing Yukos Finance as a whole was difficult. “The authority of Yukos Finance over its assets is divided. It owns them but cannot control them because they are under the management of the Stichting Administratiekantoor Yukos International fund,” Neiman explained. Therefore, it was decided to assess Yukos Finance at the size of the funds YUKOS placed in the charter capital of the company when it was founded, that is, 7.5 billion rubles.The SAYI fund was founded in 2005. At the time of its founding, its board of directors consisted of former YUKOS president Steven Theede and former vice president for legal issues David Godfrey. Later it was made up of former YUKOS financial director Bruce Misamore and Tim Osborn, director of Group MENATEP, the main shareholder in YUKOS. The foreign assets of YUKOS, with the exception of the Transpetrol stock were transferred from Yukos Finance to its wholly-owned subsidiary Yukos International. Then all the stock in Yukos International was exchanged for depositary receipts, which Yukos Finance turned over to SAYI. If the assets of Yukos International are sold, the funds from the sale will go to the creditors, since their demands have been acknowledged in The Netherlands.
The main assets that had belonged to Yukos International was the Lithuanian Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery , which was sold in 2006 for $1.492 billion. Those funds were transferred to the depositary account of an Amsterdam court, which is supposed to distribute them to the creditors. The Cypriote Moravel Investments Ltd (part of MENATEP), which is owed $655 million by YUKOS, filed claims with the court, as did Rosneft, which bought, for $455 million, the right to claim the debts of a consortium of banks that had credited YUKOS. Rosneft initiated the YUKOS bankruptcy last year by declaring that right in Russian court. In May, the Amsterdam court placed provisional measures on the funds and property of Yukos International at the demand of the Glendale company, headed by Misamore, in light of a €130 million suit over compensation for the securities debt of Yuganskneftegaz, the former YUKOS property that now belongs to Rosneft. It is not known what assets belong to SAYI at present. The former YUKOS managers are not submitting documents to the bankruptcy manager.
Yukos Finance itself controls its shares in Transpetrol, but Rebgun has been unable to sell them. According to Claire Davidson, representative of the former YUKOS executives, an appellate court in Amsterdam ruled that the TMF Management Co., which is now in possession of the certificate that confirms the ownership of the Transpetrol stock, is not required to hand it over to Yukos Finance representative appointed by Rebgun. Rebgun appointed two directors of the company, but the former YUKOS managers who head the company did not acknowledge the decision. Rebgun says that that certificate must be produced physically in order to sell the Transpetrol stock.
A source close to Rebgun told Kommersant that the YUKOS creditors are insisting on the sale of the company, without which the bankruptcy of the company cannot be completed. The Federal Tax Service and Rosneft are the largest creditors. Yukos Finance is being sold “as a situation,” Rebgun admits. A new owner will be participating in the numerous court proceedings connected with the company.
The number of suits may increase as well. In the auction announcement, it says that Dutch creditors “may have the opportunity not to acknowledge the sale of the stock [in Yukos Finance] and to dispute it.”
