MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow Arbitration Court postponed Friday until November 17 hearings on a Yukos [RTS: YUKOS] motion to declare the sale of its former core production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, invalid, and to pay out $14.5 billion in losses.
The hearings were postponed pending submission of additional documents in the case.
A 76.79% stake in Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' main production unit, was sold by the Federal Property Management Fund December 19, 2004, in lieu of Yukos' tax arrears for 2000 and 2001. Several days later, Rosneft purchased the unit from the Baikal Finance Group, which won the auction.
Yukos first challenged the company's auction in May of last year. The company claimed the sale of Yugankneftegaz was conducted in violation of Russian and international rights. Yukos lawyers also claimed the Federal Property Management Fund deliberately underestimated the initial price of the company's share package.
The defendants in the case are the Federal Property Management Fund, the Russian Finance Ministry and a number of companies that participated in the auction. Yukos also hopes to collect 388.3 billion rubles ($14.5 billion) in losses from the defendants, which it said it sustained after the sale of its core oil and gas production unit.
Yukos, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term in Siberia after being convicted of fraud in May 2005, faces a total of $16.6 billion in claims from creditors, including Yuganskneftegaz ($4.07 billion), the Federal Tax Service ($11.6 billion), Rosneft ($482 million), and more than 20 other companies.
