Bailiffs refreeze Yukos assets

Embattled Russian oil giant OAO Yukos suffered a double blow yesterday as bailiffs renewed their seizure of key production unit assets and a court rejected its appeal against the seizure of another subsidiary.

The moves were the latest in a series of back-and-forth decisions that have sent the stock price of Russia's largest oil producer on a roller-coaster ride and rattled world markets with fears of a serious interruption in oil supplies.

The new freeze on assets of Yuganskneftegaz, the core Yukos subsidiary that produces about 60 per cent of its crude, reversed one of the few recent victories for the company, which faces a 94-billion-ruble ($4.2-billion) back-tax bill.

The move by bailiffs seeking to collect on the bill came three days after a court declared their seizure of Yuganskneftegaz illegal. That verdict sent Yukos stock up sharply, easing fears the government would gut Yukos and sell its main asset to Kremlin-friendly hands.

In Friday's ruling, an arbitration court judge said bailiffs had violated a law that says production assets can be seized only if a debtor lacks cash and other non-production assets to cover a tax bill.

But the Justice Ministry said yesterday that bailiffs renewed their seizure of Yukos shares in Yuganskneftegaz immediately after the court's verdict, using a new argument, the Interfax news agency reported. They said the shares cannot be considered production tools and therefore can be frozen, it quoted a ministry statement as saying.

Yukos has warned that it could face bankruptcy as early as this month if the state does not give it access to frozen bank accounts and sells off Yuganskneftegaz, its main cash earner. Yukos said last Wednesday that bailiffs had given it access to its accounts, but the Justice Ministry rescinded that statement the next day.

In another blow yesterday, the arbitration court upheld the bailiffs' seizure of the assets of Tomskneft, another Yukos subsidiary. The decision -- followed by the news of the new Yuganskneftegaz seizure -- came in the evening, after Yukos shares rose 17 per cent on Moscow's RTS exchange in the wake of Friday's court victory.

That ruling was a rare piece of good news for Yukos and its owners amid a barrage of court cases and tax claims that is widely regarded as a punishment for former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky's opposition to the government.

The recent trend of good news followed by bad has only added to suspicions about the government's intentions, as well as prompting claims of shady stock profits based on inside information about the decisions and statements.

The court also decided yesterday that it will consider a Yukos appeal of bailiffs' seizure of a third major production unit, Samaraneftegaz, on Sept. 2, Interfax reported.

Late last month, Yukos CEO Stephen Theede warned that its oil shipments by rail could be partly halted in the second week of August unless it was given access to its frozen bank accounts. However, Marina Kovshova, the head of marketing at Russian Railways, said there is no immediate danger of an interruption in Yukos' shipments.


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