RusEnergy

Oct 20, 2005 Kommersant - The company would pay taxes to the Northern Capital In the nearest time the President and one of Sibneft's shareholders Evgeny Shvidler might announce about his resignation. One of the main contenders for the president's position of the company that goes under Gasprom is Alexander Ryazanov, Deputy Chairman of the gas monopoly . The new head of Sibneft will immediately get busy with transferring the company's registration from Omsk Region to St. Petersburg. The Ministry of finance is getting ready to compensate the budget losses to the region in the amount of 14 billion rubles. Yesterday, Gasprom's board of directors agreed to purchase two portfolios of Sibneft (72.663 percent from Millhouse Capital and 3.016 percent from Gasprombank). As Kommersant found out from the source, which is close to the board of directors, there was a credit line for $13.1 billion open in one of the Western banks and purchase of stock from the Millhouse Capital will happen very soon. The Gasprom itself will receive 56 percent of the Sibneft stock for $10.1 billion. Gasprom's affiliate in the Netherlands – Gazprom Finance BV will be a guarantor for the deal and will be putting 16 percent of Sibneft stocks ($3.3 billion worth) for an escrow account as a provision for the credit. According to the Kommersant source in one of the ministries, the deal would be considered finalized after Gasprom covers the bank credit with the money coming from the revenue of Rosneftegas by the end of this year. Yesterday Gasprom confirmed that the second payment of the state for the purchased in the summer 10.74 percent of the company stock (20.895 billion rubles or $727.5 million ) was received and together with the $565 million was sent to purchase Sibneft shares. In the mean time, Kommersant sources that are close to the Gasprom's board of directors said that today the gas monopoly will name a new head of Sibneft. "The President of Sibneft Evgeny Shvidler will leave his position in the next few days," the source, close to Millhouse, confirmed. "It is possible, that he will make an announcement already on Tuesday." Among the potential candidates for the Sibneft president's chair the experts point out Alisher Usmanov, head of Gasprominvestholding, Kirill Seleznev, General Director of Mezhregiongas, and Alexander Ryazanov, Deputy Chairman of Gasprom. However, Kommersant sources, who are familiar with the plans of Usmanov, say that he has no personal interest to the oil project and he might become the head of the company only "if the top would ask." In Mezhregiongas there are also doubts that Seleznev will change his job. The ministries directly connected with the oil and gas industry think that Ryazanov would be the most likely candidate. It was him making negotiations from the Gasprom side about technical details for Sibneft's purchase. Ryazanov is on vacation since October 14 and does not make any comments. "Let's wait till tomorrow," he told Kommersant. The source in Gasprom said that one of the priority task for the new Sibneft president would be registration of the company in St. Petersburg. "This will happen already in the next year," the source said. Omsk's officials already calculated that because of Sibneft's exit, the regional budget would lose about 14 billion rubles. "I raised the issue about the compensation for the region of lost income in amount 13.6 billion rubles in 2006 (overall the profitable part of the budget would amount to 28 billion rubles –Kommersant) during the work over the Federal Budget," Oleg Smolin, the Duma's Deputy from the Omsk Region, announced yesterday. "The First Deputy Minister of Finance Tatiana Golikova recognized that after the sale of Sibneft to Gasprom, it would be important for the regional budget to maintain the tax collecting base. The government has additional financial resources to compensate dropped out revenues at the region. We got agreed that this problem would be discussed with participation of regional finance ministry until the third budget reading, which is scheduled for Nov. 19." The Omsk Duma's Financial Committee Chairman Oleg Shishov confirmed that the "problem mostly resolved in the highest level." Let's note that the move of Sibneft to the motherland of President Putin and Gasprom's head Alexei Miller will allow the St. Petersburg's Governor Valentina Matvienko to pay out several years' worth of the state debt. By the end of this year this debt would amount to 16.21 billion rubles and by the end of the next year would exceed 20 billion rubles.