Rosneft hires YUKOS ex-spokesman as IPO adviser

MOSCOW, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Russian state oil firm Rosneft has hired former YUKOS spokesman Hugo Erikssen to advise on plans for an initial public offering, his consultancy Mmd said on Monday.
Erikssen headed YUKOS's international public relations team from 1999 until 2004, when bailiffs seized its core production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, in lieu of unpaid back taxes and sold it to Rosneft.

Mmd said in a statement it had been appointed by Rosneft as global coordinator of public relations, public affairs and investor relations, with Erikssen taking responsibility for the Rosneft account.

Erikssen joins a number of senior YUKOS managers to jump ship to Rosneft, including Sergei Kudryashov, who used to run Yuganskneftegaz, and Alexander Sapronov, YUKOS's former head of logistics.

YUKOS fell victim to what many analysts believe was a Kremlin drive to destroy its ambitious chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky and restore state control over strategic energy resources.

Khodorkovsky was convicted in May of fraud and tax evasion and has begun an eight-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony.

Yahoo! News, 11.14.2005