Yukos seeks compensation for material damage from disruption of deal to merge with Sibneft

Russia's oil giant Yukos intends to demand from Sibneft the payment of a compensation of 5 billion dollars for stopping the procedure for merging the two companies, or, to be more precise, for annulling a merger deal, Leonid Nevzlin, who owns the second largest stake in Yukos, said in an interview with The Financial Times.

According to him, Yukos shareholders will be insisting on acceptable financial conditions for unwinding the merger deal, which was announced earlier this week.

If there is an agreement to cancel the merger, it should be open, transparent and equally profitable or unprofitable both for majority and minority Yukos shareholders, noted Nevzlin.

He believes that Sibneft owner Roman Abramovich should return 3 billion dollars he received as a result of formalizing the merger deal. Besides, noted Nevzlin, Yukos shareholders are expecting a compensation for what he described as a no-interest loan, and for the company's shares falling after the announcement of the cancellation of the deal. Altogether, in Nevzlin's view, these compensation payments may amount to another 1 to 2 billion dollars.