YUKOS managers united, shareholders’ views may differ

There are no differences in the YUKOS management, the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Viktor Gerashchenko told a news conference on Thursday.

“We have been doing our utmost to formulate proposals to the officials they would accept,” Gerashchenko said.

Prime-Tass quotes Gerashchenko as saying the company had made an offer of paying 8 billion dollars in exchange for the cancellation of all tax claims for the period of 2000-2003.

As for the company’s shareholders, their opinions may differ, he said.

“We know that Mikhail Khodorkovsky (YUKOS’s former chief) offered to sell his shares. He started with an offer to 25 percent to eventually increase it to 44 percent, but the government’s response is unknown to us. We do not know whether Khodorkovsky has received a reply to his proposal at all,” Gerashchenko said.

In the meantime, “some YUKOS shareholders have been holding backstage talks without notifying the company’s management why they were doing so,” Gerashchenko said, adding that this hindered the process of negotiations with the authorities.

“Our contacts with various financial institutions have made it clear that if proper contacts were established with the government structures, that would make it possible to raise enough cash to deal with the current problems,” Gerashchenko said.


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