This October, the two Russian petroleum companies, ?Sibneft? and ?YUKOS" have declared the end of their merge. As a result, YUKOS is to become the owner of 90 % of "Sibneft? shares, and, the shareholders of ?Sibneft?, in their turn, receive 26,01 % of YUKOS shares and 3 billion dollars. On November 28, it was planned to discuss the final details of the bargain.
October, 25 the president of the company YUKOS Michail Khodorkovsky was arrested and it put an end to the unclouded existence of the company. The company had to go through numerous checks, audits, investigations and accusations. Now the Kremlin has decided to undertake the second half of the merger, i.e. "Sibneft'".
Now, due to the vigorous activity of deputy Yudin not only is YUKOS up to their neck in problems, Sibneft too. At the end of October Vladimir Yudin has addressed the General Public Prosecutor Office with a request to carry out an investigation of privatization of "Sibneft" during mortgaging auction of 1995, but he is not satisfied. Recently he assigned to general public prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov the next inquiry of imposing the arrest on "Sibneft? shares.
Today, "Sibneft" is exposed to various audits. So, as a result of the check of "Sibneft" economic activities by Accounting Chamber of the Russian Federation, certain infringements were revealed. The checks are concerned with the payment of taxes, customs and other obligatory payments in the federal budget, and other tax and credit operations. The results are sent not only to the Ministry of Taxes and Tax Collection, the State Customs Committee and to the Federal service tax police, but also to "the government ", according to Vyacheslav Smirnov, the head of the Interaction with the Government Bodies Office.
According to Interfax, the State Department in charge of crimes investigation has already studied the results of the audit of the Accounting Chamber to institute proceedings against ?Sibneft" and "Rosneft?. During those checks, the economic activities of other enterprises which have constant commercial ties with these two companies were investigated.
Shares also do not remain indifferent to scandals around YUKOS and Sibneft: up and down. More recently shares of "Sibneft" have tumbled 3,9 % in RTS, and on November, 20 rose 2 % , the same as the YUKOS shares. But, all the same, the "Sibneft? shares are falling down. Since October, 20 when the Office of Public Prosecutor has declared about an opportunity of Khodorkovsky?s arrest, there has been a 24% loss.
The foreign investors working in Russia are very concerned about the situation on the Russian share market. They do not exclude a new round of blows on "YKOSSibneft". The rumors have already emerged that the Russian government will soon demand the penalty more than 10 billion dollars from the company, as indemnification of the taxes not paid in last years.
Author: Alexandra Belyaeva
