RusEnergy

// The company did not have enough money for buying YUKOS office
May 12, 2007- kommersant.com - The 13th auction for selling YUKOS assets changed the course of the company’s bankruptcy. The bidding went on for nearly three hours, the lot’s cost grew by nearly five times, and Rosneft did not become the winner. Unknown company Prana prevented it from moving into YUKOS headquarters. Prana did not only set the world record in real estate deals’ cost, but also raised the capitalization of asset-stripped YUKOS. The company’s shares grew by 1.5 times after the auction, giving hope to investors to return at least some money. The auction for the 13th lot of YUKOS was not expected to bring surprises. The lot’s key asset was YUKOS headquarters on Dubininskaya street in Moscow. Its initial price was 22 billion rubles. After three-hour bidding, the price grew by nearly five times, reaching 100.09 billion rubles ($3.87 billion). Prana company became the winner. Experts estimate the real cost of YUKOS real estate at not over $550 million. Until yesterday, no one in the world has ever paid almost $4 billion for a building. Meanwhile, neither experts nor YUKOS claimers know who stands behind Prana. The generous buyer also rendered quite a service to YUKOS shareholders. The company’s quotations increased drastically, by 49 percent, on expectations that at least some money will go to the shareholders, and not to creditors, since there already is enough for settling YUKOS debts.