OREANDA-NEWS. According to Nicolay Lashkevich, the spokesman for Eduard Rebgun, who manages the sale of all Yukos assets’, Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) did not permit investment company Promregion Holding’s to acquire of the assets that were sold to it during the 9 th Yukos’ auction on May 3. The official reason for the refusal provided by FAS said that it was not clear what benefit Promregion Holiding would get from the assets it bid for. In addition, the regulator mentioned that it was not possible to say on behalf of whom these assets were purchased.

The lot included Yukos’ assets in Krasnodar region: a 100% stake in Shatsky Val company (which holds an exploration license for Zapodno-Chernomorskaya Ploshchad oil field on the Black Sea shelf), 49,89% stake in Caspian Oil Company, 100% stake in oil product manufacturer Stavropolnefteprodukt, 51% stake in little-known company Yu-Kuban, 26,26% stakes in electric power utility Kubanenergo, Kubanskaya electric power supply company, Kuban Generating Company and Kuban Mainline Grids. Promregion Holding offered RUR 4,9bn (USD 188mn) for the lot. The starting price was RUR 3,7bn. Lashkevich mentioned two ways to resell the assets. It is possible that a new auction can be held or they can go to the company which had the highest bid after Promregion Holding during the May 3 auction.

IntelliNews Comment: The explanation of FAS does not seem very probable to us. It looks more like an excuse.We believe that this was the authorities may be helping Rosneft to acquire the assets. During the auction the main bidders for these Yukos’ assets were Rosneft and Promregion Holding. At the end Promregion Holding managed to outbid Rosneft, so it is possible that the management of the state-owned oil major decided to use the administrative resources.