MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state entities will be the main bidders for a minority stake in the oil giant Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] held by the bankrupt oil company Yukos [RTS: YUKO], experts polled by RIA Novosti said Monday.
The Russian Federal Property Fund began accepting applications Monday for an open auction to sell Yukos' 9.44% stake in Rosneft, which will be offered in a single lot, along with Yuganskneftegaz promissory notes worth 3.6 billion rubles (about $137.5 million).
Applications will be accepted through March 23, and the auction will take place March 27. The lot's initial price is 195.5 billion rubles (about $7.5 billion), with a bid increment of 260 million rubles (about $9.9 million).
Prospective bidders must deposit 39.1 billion rubles (about $1.5 billion) to participate in the auction.
Once Russia's largest crude producer, Yukos was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006 after three years of litigation with authorities over tax arrears.
The Yukos group, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term for fraud and tax evasion, now faces multi-billion dollar claims from creditors, including state-controlled oil company Rosneft, Rosneft-owned former production unit Yuganskneftegaz, the Federal Tax Service, and more than 20 other companies.
A consortium of appraisers estimated Yukos assets at $22 billion. However, total claims from creditors against the company amount to around $26 billion.
The Yukos creditors' committee set out February 20 the terms of auctions to sell the company's assets.
Experts polled by RIA Novosti said Rosneft and energy giant Gazprom will be the main bidders for Yukos' major oil producing and refining assets.
"Naturally, Rosneft will participate in the sale of the first lot, all the more so as it has repeatedly confirmed its interest. The price is also attractive for the company," said Artyom Konchin, an analyst with Aton brokerage.
Konchin said a strategic partner could possibly buy almost 10% of shares in Rosneft to increase its stake in the company but added that this scenario was 10-15% probable.
Valery Nesterov, an analyst with Troika-Dialog brokerage, also said that Gazprom and Rosneft were the main bidders at Yukos auctions.
"It is known that Rosneft is interested in all extracting facilities, and also in refining. Gazprom is more interested in extracting assets," he said.
Overall, about 200 Yukos enterprises are slated for sell-off.
