Gazprom Votes To Bankrupt Sibur

A Gazprom-led group of creditors voted to bankrupt Sibur, Russia's top petrochemicals producer, after the world's top natural gas producer had said on Friday that it wanted to end the bankruptcy proceedings at its unit.

Sibur's creditors also voted to ask a Siberian court on Thursday to place the company under external management for as long as one year, said Irina Gan, a Sibur spokeswoman, in a telephone interview. Gazprom has said Sibur owes it a billion dollars and has debts to other creditors of half a billion dollars.

“Under this management, the external supervisor will be allowed to sell the company's assets to recover debts,” Gan said.

Gazprom in March began bankruptcy proceedings against Sibur to try to recover 29 billion rubles ($921 million) that it lent the unit when Rem Vyakhirev was Gazprom chief executive. Vyakhirev was fired last May as Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to re- establish control of the gas producer.

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