Beleaguered Yukos chairman says owners could sell out

MOSCOW (AFP) - The chairman of beleaguered Russian oil giant said the owners of the company could seek to resolve their conflict with the Kremlin by selling their stakes.
"The problem can be resolved if the Menatep Group, as the owner of Yukos, sells its stake in the oil company," Viktor Gerashchenko told the Izvestia daily.
Menatep is the vehicle through which tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associates own 61 percent of Russia's largest oil producer.
The company has warned it may file for bankruptcy after the government earlier this month slapped fresh tax claims against it, taking the total potential liability to 17 billion dollars (13 billion euros).
Khodorkovsky, the founder and former chief executive of Yukos, who is on trial for fraud and tax evasion facing more than 20 years in jail if convicted, is widely seen as the target of a campaign to neutralise his political ambitions.
Russian authorities have said they would sell Yukos' crown jewel Yugansneftegaz in order to settle the firm's tax bill, at a price well under that at which it has been valued.
This has sparked speculation that the intention is to hand over the lion's share of the country's top oil corporation to state-controlled gas behemoth Gazprom to create a new national oil and gas giant.
The Yukos chairman's comments sent the share price sharply higher by more than eight percent on the Moscow RTS index to 3.25 dollars as investors hoped that bankruptcy might be avoided and some Yukos assets could be salvaged.
"The prospects of a wholesale board change and further state involvement indicate an agreed resolution could be forthcoming rather than the doomsday bankruptcy scenario," Paul Collison of UBS Brunswick investment bank in Moscow said.
"We continue to think Yugansk is taken in exchange for all tax obligations," he added.
Steven Dashevsky from Moscow brokerage Aton said that the government might be tempted to opt for a negotiated solution.
"A settlement is unlikely but it is the easiest and least expensive way for the government to get out of this mess," he conceded, explaining that the 61-percent stake could be worth around four billion dollars.
Whatever the means, "the objective is to see Yukos fall into the hands of Gazprom or its affiliates," the analyst said.

11/09/2004 - 11:44 GMT - AFP