MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Federal Property Fund confirmed that state-controlled oil giant Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] is one of two companies that have registered as bidders for Wednesday's auction to sell Yukos [RTS: YUKO] transport assets.
Russian company Benefit, unknown until it appeared at the previous Yukos auction, will also bid at the liquidation auction to sell the bankrupt oil company's transport assets and subsidiaries in ex-Soviet countries. Bidding for the lot will start at 18.5 billion rubles (about $730 million).
The little-known company was outbid at the last Yukos auction, for licenses to East Siberian oil fields, by Rosneft, which has won all the main Yukos liquidation auctions. Through buying up all Yukos's key production and refining assets, Rosneft has become one of Russia's leading crude producers.
On Tuesday, a court granted the Yukos bankruptcy administrator three more months to continue the liquidation process, in which assets of the former oil giant are being sold off to meet creditors' claims.
"Lot No. 18," to be offered at Wednesday's auction, also includes telecoms, security, and investment subsidiaries of Yukos, and several transport assets that failed to find buyers at previous auctions.
Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt on August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over arrears. Its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.
