18 June 2004 11:27
State set to finish off Yukos - Russian newspaper analyst
[No dateline, as received] The state and [Russian oil major] Yukos are unlikely to "strike a deal", the
Novaya Gazeta newspaper's analyst, Yuliya Latynina, has told Ekho Moskvy radio.
"President Vladimir Putin has said that he does not want the company to go bankrupt, while the Arbitration Court
has virtually said that it must be bankrupted. This is another sign indicating that the state and Yukos are unlikely to
come to an agreement and that the scheme suggested by the [company] management is unlikely to be accepted for technical
as well as strategic reasons," Latynina said.
"Bankruptcy is unprofitable for everybody except one category of people - Putin's entourage. Bankruptcy
means that they will receive [Yukos'] assets for free, which cost billions of dollars. If the company is not
bankrupted, it will mean that they will have to pay 3bn dollars for 20 per cent of Yukos," she added.
"The market, I think, has assessed totally inadequately what Putin said yesterday [17 June], as it seriously
believed that the state and Yukos would reach an understanding. It is in the interests of the market that they do.
However, the state does not think about the profit, it thinks about a victory. The state is not doing business as far as
Yukos is concerned, it is finishing off the encircled enemy and will not accept its partial capitulation," Latynina
concluded by saying.
[Ekho Moskvy news agency] |
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