Yukos may take action against Sibneft

Resumen de Prensa            Enervía, martes, 20 abril 2004

FUENTE: Financial Times


The management of Yukos, one of Russia's largest oil companies, is considering legal action against Sibneft, a company controlled by Roman Abramovich, as one of the options for resolving the stalemate between the two groups.



Bruce Misamore, the chief financial officer of Yukos, told the Financial Times that Sibneft was in breach of its contracts with Yukos, and the latter's management was considering an arbitration in London.

Yukos and Sibneft agreed to merge almost a year ago. However, after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former chief executive of Yukos and its largest shareholder, Sibneft asked for the merger to be unwound.

Earlier this year majority shareholders in Yukos and Sibneft signed a protocol agreeing in principle to reverse the merger. However, Yukos' management says it has had no official proposal from Sibneft or its own core shareholders.

Mr Misamore said management was acting for all shareholders and not just majority shareholders. He said Yukos could either proceed with the consolidation of Sibneft or make its own plan for separation.

So far Sibneft, which on paper is 92 per cent-owned by Yukos, has resisted Yukos' attempts to appoint a new board of directors and change its charter - which Mr Misamore said was a breach of the contract signed under UK law. "As far as we are concerned the merger has been completed and the contracts have been exchanged," he said.

Sibneft wants a mirror transaction with Yukos, but Mr Misamore said a new transaction should be based on a new valuation of Yukos' stock, which has increased significantly since the merger was first announced. "I can't see how a mirror transaction would be possible," he said.

Mr Misamore said that if the company's management did not receive concrete proposals from shareholders, it may present its own plan for the separation. However, if Sibneft shareholders refused its own proposal, it could take legal action against its former partners.