Slavneft's minority shareholders threaten TNK-BP joint venture

Minority shareholders of the Slavneft oil and gas company are going to protest against the results of the auction for selling a 74.95-percent stake in the company and to demand arresting the property of the winners of the auction, Sibneft and the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK). TNK's assets are currently being passed to a joint venture with British Petroleum, created on the parity basis. However, according to Russian legislation, they are not safe from an arrest.

In the opinion of shareholders of Slavneft's subsidiaries Megionneftegaz and Yaroslavlnefteorgsintez, last fall, Slavneft's management was withdrawing assets from its subsidiaries. The shareholders state that they have evidence of the fact that these resources were later used by the winners of the auction for the sale of 74.95 percent in Slavneft, TNK and Sibneft, for buying the stake form the state.

The claimants demand TNK and Sibneft assets to be arrested for insuring the claim. Additionally, the claimants insist on abolishing the results of the auction with transferring the paid resources to the state. Corresponding suits were submitted to courts of the Chita, Sverdlovsk and Khabarovsk regions, and the Jewish Autonomous Area.

© &to=http://www.rbc.com' target=_blank>RBC

&to=http://www.tnk.ru/mainpage_eng.asp?IDR=162&LANG=ENG' target=_blank>TNK