Share slump sees Yukos suspended

The shares of embattled Russian oil giant Yukos have been suspended after plummeting on news of a new tax demand.
The price of Yukos shares dropped 15% on claims that the Russian tax ministry had issued a new tax bill of $3.4bn for the 2001 fiscal year.

The claim comes hard on the back of a $3.4bn tax bill for 2000, which was approved by a court this week.

Earlier, bailiffs gave the firm just five days to pay the 2000 bill during a one-hour visit to the firm's Moscow HQ.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted a Moscow Stock Exchange dealer as saying that the group's shares had been suspended until Friday.

Deaf ears

"(The bailiffs) presented the company with an order to execute the ruling," company spokesman Alexander Shadrin said.

"The order also instructed bailiffs to 'conduct an inventory of property and freeze it'."

Mr Shadrin said that Yukos had offered its Sibneft stake as collateral against payment of the tax demand.

He added that the group's lawyers had offered to give details of Yukos's bank balance and documents confirming its 35% stake in rival Sibneft - but that the firm's lawyers would take time to draw up a list of its assets.

Management at the company has previously offered to pay off the tax demand by handing over assets or a stake in the company.

Yukos had previously tried to negotiate the bill lower - or to give it time to raise the money by issuing new shares.

But now, with a court freeze on the sale of its assets and with claims that it has just $1bn in cash the group has said it cannot settle the bill and may well go bankrupt as a result of the action.

Bills to balloon?

Since the current claim applies only to 2000, the liability could yet balloon - with estimates of the possible total bill reaching as high as $10bn.

And those fears could be realised sooner than expected. Interfax, quoting tax ministry officials, said the firm has been served with an additional $3.4bn bill for the 2001 tax year.

The bills relate to accusations that Yukos misused domestic tax havens to underpay its taxes, but the firm has argued that the practice was legal at the time.


Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that he was "not interested in the bankruptcy of such a company as Yukos", suggesting that a deal could be possible.

On Wednesday, Yukos said it was delaying publication of its 2003 financial results as a result of the court decision to force it to pay its tax bill.

And a week earlier it ditched Simon Kukes, Mr Khodorkovsky's replacement as chief executive, in what observers believe was a falling-out over strategy.

Deal makers
His replacement is chief operating officer Steven Theede, a veteran of the US oil business, while the chairman's job went to old-school insider Viktor Gerashchenko.

As a former head of the Central Bank, Mr Gerashchenko was seen as someone with the experience and connections to help Yukos negotiate a settlement - and who would not be seen as a threat by the Kremlin.

Yukos' legal troubles are widely seen as revenge for the political ambitions of major shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arrested last year.

Mr Khodorkovsky is on trial on charges of fraud and tax evasion, as is Platon Lebedev, chairman of Menatep Group - the vehicle through which Mr Khodorkovsky controls Yukos.

On Thursday Mr Lebedev was moved from a medical ward to a common cell with up to 20 other inmates.

The move, his lawyers said, was designed to apply pressure on him and "deprive him of the possibility of taking an active part in the trial".

HERE