Yukos to Meet with US Minority Shareholders in Court Only

Yukos to Meet with US Minority Shareholders in Court Only

Yukos Oil Company is ready to face its foreign minority shareholders in a number of cases filed to Southern District court of New York. No out of court settlements will be made, Yukos’ press secretary Alexander Shadrin told Itar-Tass news agency late on Thursday, July 15. “We are going to defend our right in court only,” said Shadrin.

As MosNews reported on several occasions, four class action lawsuits have been filed against Yukos in New York’s Southern District court. The suits are filed on behalf of Russian oil company’s minority shareholders who bought Yukos’ shares in the period between February 13, 2003 and October 25, 2003. The shareholders claim that over this period of time the company conveyed incomplete or misleading information about its operations, which led the investors to buy the shares at an inflated price. The lawsuits are filed against Yukos Oil Company, its largest shareholder Group Menatep, its co-owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and Vasily Shakhnovsky, Yukos’ CFO Bruce Misamore and PricewaterhouseCoopers audit firm.

Darren Robbins, one of lawyers who represent the plaintiffs said that he believes Yukos has enough funds to meet all the claims, which may amount to $1 billion just on one of the cases. “The company is on the brink of bankruptcy due to a liquidity problem, but it obviously has assets that exceed the claims,” he said.