Yukos plans $20bn damages claim

By Doug Cameron in Houston
Published: January 7 2005 02:00 | Last updated: January 7 2005 02:00

Yukos yesterday said it planned to launch a $20bn claim for damages against the Russian government and others involved in the forced auction last month of its main operating subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas (YNG).


The Russian oil group last month filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in a last-ditch bid to block the sale of YNG, which was seized by the government to settle back taxes allegedly owed by Yukos. However, the US bankruptcy judge yesterday said that on February 16 she would hear a motion filed by Deutsche Bank to dismiss the bankruptcy motion.

The German bank led a consortium of lenders that had planned to fund a bid for YNG by Gazpromneft, a unit of the Russian gas group Gazprom, in which the state has a 40 per cent stake.

Gazpromneft did not bid after failing to overturn the injunction.

YNG was acquired by Baikal Finance, an unknown group that subsequently sold the asset to Rosneft, the Russian oil company scheduled to merge with Gazprom this year.

Further motions to dismiss the bankruptcy filing could also follow from other lenders, as well as Gazpromneft, ahead of the February hearing. "When [the judge] hears it, we are very confident that it will be dismissed," said Michael Goldberg, counsel for Gazpromneft. "This is nothing more than an attempt to manufacture jurisdiction."

Yukos yesterday said Rosneft would be added to the damages claim, alongside Gazprom, Gazpromneft, Baikal Finance and the Russian Federation.

It had yet to decide whether it would serve notice for damages on any of the banks involved in the Gazpromneft syndicate.

Yukos, whose chief financial officer Bruce Misamore is operating from Houston, also said an additional $20m had been transferred to the US from a non-Russian subsidiary to cover the costs of its bankruptcy filing.

This is in addition to the $7m transferred last month and which hitherto had been Yukos's only US assets, together with one employee, Mr Misamore.

Deutsche Bank argued in its filing that the US risked becoming a jurisdiction of convenience since Yukos had so few assets in the country.

Other banks in the Gazpromneft syndicate which included BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, ABN Amro, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Calyon also suggested yesterday that they might file motions to dismiss Yukos's bankruptcy claim.

(Financial Times, 1.7.2005)