RusEnergy

06–27–2006 Kommersant – Tatneft has announced it starts voluntary de-listing on NYSE. It is the first time that a Russian company leaves the most prestigious trading floor of the world. Tatneft attributes the withdrawal to higher registration costs in the U.S. and the desire to concentrate on LSE. Tatneft announced yesterday the plans to go through a de-listing procedure on NYSE and terminate SEC registration. Nowadays, Tatneft has 21 percent of stocks circulating on NYSE as ADRs that could be transferred to LSE, a source with the Moscow office of the company said on condition of anonymity. Tatneft BOD will finally decide on de-listing on June 30. Then, the company will apply for terminating NYSE registration for its common stocks. "As the costs related to registering securities with SEC had materially increased in the last years, it was decided to centralize the world trading in equity securities of Tatneft in London," the company said in an official news release. De-listing will trim the level of Tatneft securities, so the holders (but for qualified investors) will be offered the buy-out via the Bank of New York, depository for Tatneft ADRs. The actual reasons of Tatneft de-listing are a bit different from the ones named by the company, the market players speculate. "Surely, the reason of transfer is reluctance to explain the reported data," Alfa Bank analyst Konstantin Batunin said, adding that, in London, the requirements to issuers are not as strict as in New York, and one can disclose less information there.