RusEnergy

RBC News 03-05-2007 -
Has broken out between Rosneft and tax officials
With only a few days left before the YUKOS auction, the bankrupt firm’s creditors cannot agree on their valuation, RBC Daily has learnt. A source close to YUKOS’s bankruptcy manager said tax officials want to earn as much as possible from the YUKOS auction, while oil company Rosneft is lobbying for YUKOS’s most interesting assets to be sold at a discount. The committee of YUKOS’s creditors has seven members, including four representatives of the Federal Tax Service, two representatives of Rosneft and one representative of YUKOS’s subsidiary Samaraneftegaz. On 1 August 2006 YUKOS was declared bankrupt by the Moscow Arbitration Court, which put the company into bankruptcy administration for one year. YUKOS’s total debt tops RUR 709 billion (approx. $27bn at the current exchange rate). The largest creditors are the Federal Tax Service (RUR 429 billion, approx. $16.3bn), Rosneft (RUR 590.7 billion, approx. $22.5bn), Tomskneft (RUR 12.3 billion, approx. $468.75m) and Samaraneftegaz ($1.85 billion, approx. $70.5m). A source familiar with the situation said the tax service’s position in the Kremlin strengthened after its head Anatoly Serdyukov was appointed Defense Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle last month. The bankrupt oil firm will be unable to pay all tax and other debts claimed from it, the source said. In view of this, the company’s No. 1 creditor, the Federal Tax Service, received instructions to get as much as possible from the YUKOS auctions. Indeed, this is in the best interests of the tax service, which claims the largest amount of fines and penalties from YUKOS, agrees Oleg Bazhenov, at Vegas Lex law firm. “Debts are to be paid first, fines and penalties are next in line. That’s why the Federal Tax Service will have to wait until the end of the auction, while Rosneft will get its money earlier, after its stake in YUKOS is sold,” the expert said. On the contrary, Rosneft will try to lower the starting price, acting both through the Kremlin and YUKOS’s bankruptcy manager Eduard Rebgun. Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov said earlier that his company would only bid for YUKOS property if the price is not too high. Rosneft has nominated two candidates for the Rosneft Board of Directors. According to unconfirmed reports, one of them is Eduard Rebgun. Rosneft could approve them as independent directors hoping for loyalty and support from YUKOS. In an interview on Vesti-24 Rebgun estimated YUKOS’s assets at about $27 billion, approximately as much as the company owns. But he said a liquidation discount could be applied to the company’s assets. The discount will vary for each asset, but it cannot rise above 30 percent. At this point it is known that a significant discount will be applied to the first lot of the YUKOS auction - a 9.44 percent stake in Rosneft to be sold on 27 March. The starting price has been set at RUR 195.5 billion (approx. $7.45bn), approximately 22% below its current market value. And Gazprom Neft’s shares were priced at their market value. Together with gas and some non-core assets, they will form the second lot, priced at about $5.5 billion. Rebgun said he was unaware of relations among YUKOS’s creditors. “They don’t inform me about their gatherings. I only present them with the results of the valuation carried out by appraisers. The creditors are free to change these results as they think proper,” he stressed. Rebgun said he did not know whether the discount would be applied to refining and production assets, which are most interesting to Rosneft. “Their starting price will soon be approved by the committee of creditors,” he said, adding that the creditors voted unanimously at their last meeting to approve the formation of the lots, including for YUKOS’s gas assets. According to sources familiar with the valuation results, Samaraneftegaz was valued at over $8 billion, and Tomsknet was priced higher, at $9.5 billion. Another YUKOS’s subsidiary, the East Siberian Oil and Gas Company, was estimated much cheaper, at just $47 million, due to its problems with oilfield licenses. But the starting prices could be changed significantly by the creditors. Artem Konchin, at ATON, thinks Rosneft will get the biggest discount for oil refining assets. “Without oil delivery contracts, refineries are inexpensive. Being the biggest oil supplier for them, Rosneft can hope for a discount,” he said. Konstantin Cherepanov, at Rye, Man & Gor Securities, says Rosneft has a good chance to buy YUKOS’s oil refineries and some of its production assets, including the East Siberian Oil and Gas Company and Samaraneftegaz, while Gazprom will bid for Tomskneft, for its oil arm Gazprom Neft.