Yukos Sold out Sakhaneftegaz.

Yukos keeps on getting rid of the assets. This time the company has just sold Sakhaneftegaz to BIN Bank. Analysts assume that the bank has acquired this stake for resale. They consider Alros, a monopolistic diamond miner, as the most likely aspirant after the company’s stake.
Yukos controls more than 50% of Sakhaneftegaz via Yukos-M ZAO (13.22%), Cyprus-registered Kampione Holdings (19.89%) and Empusa Enterprises (17.27%), Yakutia’s Privity Ministry having 26.5% stake and Vostok Nafta 8.2%. Sakhaneftegaz owns 92.58% of Yakutgazprom, 85.52% of Lenaneftegaz, 68.33% of Yakutskgeophysika и 53.29% of Lenagaz. In the end of 2004 Yukos representatives were dismissed from the management of Sakhaneftegaz. And in February 2005 they were removed from the Board of Directors. The 2004 receipts of Sakhaneftegaz were 1.4 billion rubles, the dead loss being 410 million rubles. According to the record of the Fuel and Energy Complex’s Central Dispatcher Board, of all the affiliates of Sakhaneftegaz it was only Yakutgazprom that showed 47 thousand tons of oil output and 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
That the shares of Sakhaneftegaz previously possessed by Yukos were sold out to BIN Bank has been communicated to the Vedomosti by an official at the government of Yakutia. According to him, the deal was concluded some time ago and so far no changes have taken place in the shareholders register. A BIN Bank representative confirmed this information to the Vedomosti saying the bank had acquired it for one of his clients.
The sale took place in spite of the sequestration applied to Yukos. According to a source close to Yukos, it was possible due to the fact that the assets were in the structures affiliated with the head company. At the officers of justice service there were no comments on the possibility of selling out Sakhaneftegaz. Alros may become one of the buyers. As far back as July the company’s President Alexander Nichiporuk said the company was in discussion with Yukos concerning acquisition of Sakhaneftegaz’ assets. Yesterday an Alros representative said to the Vedomosti that the interest of the company to the assets of Sakhaneftegaz was still there but so far no agreements had been reached.
According to a former CEO of Yukos, the stake of Sakhaneftegaz cost BIN Bank $6 million. In 2002 Yukos bought it for $35 million. ‘Such a low price implies that Sakhaneftegaz has been deprived of the most part of its main assets, i.e. Yakutgazprom, resulted from its shares issue,’ assumes Gasprombank analyst Sergey Suverov. This is true that this year the management of Sakhaneftegaz has initiated nearly four times increase of the chartered fund of Yakutgazprom, and on the 18th October the Federal Service for Financial Markets registered this issue. The results of its 
distribution are not yet known. But if Sakhaneftegaz has not bought out its share, its interest in Yakutgazprom must be down to 22%. Basing on the oil output volumes, Troyka Dialogue analyst Valery Nesterov values this company at $20-30 million. Suverov thinks small as they are the assets of Sakhaneftegaz may be of some interest to RussNeft following an offensive merging policy. ‘If the company decides to do IPO, extra assets would come in handy,’ says the expert. In his opinion, a potential buyer may be as well Surgutneftegaz in the framework of its policy to expand over to Eastern Siberia. But the most likely aspirant after the shares of Sakhaneftegaz is Alros, assumes Suverov. This company is pressing towards consolidation of all the businesses in the region.
Vice-president of RussNeft Edwards Sarkisov rejected out of hand any connection of the company with the purchase of Sakhaneftegaz, and at Surgutneftegaz they declined to comment.