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Russian oil billionaire resigns after 'persecution'
By Amelie Herenstein
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 07 31 07
The billionaire chief executive of Russian oil major Russneft announced Monday that he was leaving the company and selling his stake following "unprecedented persecution" by the authorities.
After Mikhail Gutseriyev's statement was printed in a local business daily, the holding company of a Kremlin-friendly billionaire confirmed it was seeking to finalize the acquisition of the oil company.
"They told me I could take the easy way out. I refused," Gutseriyev said in an open letter printed in business daily Vedomosti. "Then to make me more ready to negotiate, my company came under unprecedented persecution."
Local media compared the plight of the Russneft owner with that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose political ambitions were blamed for a series of giant back-tax bills that crushed his Yukos oil empire.
"There was an attack on all fronts" against Russneft in the form of inquiries by Russian tax authorities, the prosecutor general's office and the interior ministry, Gutseriyev said.
"I have taken the decision to quit our company. I hand over control of the holding to a new owner who, I am sure, will ensure that all the problems with Russneft will be resolved over time," Gutseriyev said in his letter.
A Russneft board meeting on Monday approved Gutseriyev's resignation and appointed senior vice-president Oleg Gordeyev as the acting head of the group, the company said in a statement.
Basic Element, the holding company of Oleg Deripaska, said on Monday it had put in a request to the federal anti-monopoly committee for Russneft to be absorbed into its energy subsidiary.
The anti-monopoly committee has up to a month to rule on the proposed deal.
Russneft has become the subject of a series of investigations, including one by the prosecutor general's office into "illegal activities" by subsidiary companies and another by the interior ministry for non-payment of taxes.
Gutseriyev and several of his colleagues have also been accused of tax evasion and other illegal activities. In Monday's letter, Gutseriyev said he had "never and under no circumstances" broken the law.
The cost of Basic Element's purchase of Russneft shares has not been announced, although reports have put the sale at between six and 9.6 billion dollars, including approximately three billion for Gutseriyev himself.
The purchaser will have to have to absorb a debt of 2.8 billion dollars and tax arrears of close to 800 million dollars, the business daily Vedomosti reported.
Russneft is one of Russia's top ten oil companies by production, pumping 17 million tons of oil last year of recoverable reserves estimated at 630 million tons. The company employs 17,000 people.
Russian media compared the fate of Gutseriyev and Russneft with the destruction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's oil major Yukos, which sank from the country's No. 1 producer to a bankrupt hulk within four years.
The Kommersant daily said Russneft's troubles became "chronic" after the group acquired half of an oil field previously owned by Yukos.
Like Khodorkovsky, Gutseriyev built his company up, expanding ten-fold over five years. Like Khodorkovsky, Gutseriyev had openly spoken of his desire for greater political influence.
"If Gutseriyev had continued to resist, he would have met the same fate as Khodorkovsky," opposition member of parliament Gennady Seleznyov told Vedomosti."I would not rule out the shares that are with Deripaska today could be with Rosneft tomorrow," he said, referring to the state-controlled major that is Russia's largest oil producer.
AFP 30 1438 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All rights reserved.
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