Yukos gains on demerger rumour

Shares in Yukos gained 9 per cent on the Moscow market this afternoon as rumours circulated that the cash-strapped Russian oil giant could have extricated itself from a major partnership.

Reuters reported some analysts suggesting that Yukos had had agreed on a demerger from Sibneft. Further details were not available.

The Sibneft-Yukos partnership was heralded as creating the fourth-largest privately owned oil company in the world when it was announced in April 2003. The combined venture was expected to pump more oil on a daily basis than Chevron Texaco, the US oil giant, but the tie-up provoked disquiet in the Russian press.

However, the rally surprised many observers, who said it ran counter to the flow of bearish news surrounding the oil company.

A further negative development emerged this afternoon when Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man when he was chief executive of Yukos until his imprisonment last year, said he was unable pay Yukos's tax bill from his personal fortune.

Mr Khodorkovsky, who was jailed last October on charges of fraud and forgery, still owns a substantial share of stock in the country's largest oil producer and has said he is willing to hand over his shares to help Yukos avoid collapse.

The company faces a 99.4-billion-ruble (£2bn) tax bill for 2000 which Yukos says could drive it into bankruptcy. Further claims for subsequent years are expected to follow.

The Russian government has made no public comment about Mr Khodorkovsky's offer to give up his shares. The tycoon has rejected officials' suggestions that he has enough cash to pay the bill himself.

In comments published on his press service's Web site, Mr Khodorkovsky said most of the money he had received from dividends had been reinvested in Yukos.

"So when a respected lawyer like the General Prosecutor of Russia Vladimir Ustinov says that I could pay for the so called tax debt ... using my own funds, he is simply suffering from his poorly qualified economic team," Mr Khodorkovsky's web-site said.

"Many think that they will take Yukos from me. That's probably the case," it added

The crackdown on Mr Khodorkovsky and the parallel tax case against Yukos has been interpreted by observers as punishment for the tycoon's political activities and his funding of opposition parties in the run-up to last year's parliamentary elections.

While defending his record at Yukos, whose value he claimed to have increased 30 times, Mr Khodorkovsky said he would be happy to abandon business altogether.

HERE