According to Reuters, the assets that were auctioned also included a number of other Moscow properties and Yukos’ Trading House Yukos-M trading unit, which is rumored to have access to oil inventories or cash.
The publication reported that the 13th lot of Yukos assets was expected to be acquired by Russian state-owned oil titan Rosneft. Indeed, the company had already purchased a number of Yukos assets earlier in the week, as the Kremlin continued to dismantle Yukos to pay the company’s alleged debts of $26 billion.
Reuters revealed that the final bidding price for lot 13 of the Yukos assets stood at over RUB100 billion; four and a half times the starting price of RUB22.1 billion.
Reuters cited Nikolai Lashkevich, a spokesman for Yukos’ bankruptcy receiver, as saying: I don’t think anyone would have expected the price to go up so quickly and such a big battle to break out.
The publication also reported that there has been some confusion in the industry as to why the assets were sold for such large sum. Reuters commented that industry observers are speculating that there may be hidden value in the assets that led Prana and Rosneft to vie for them.
One popular opinion seems to be that the Yukos trading unit still has a number of oil inventories, Reuters said. However, it has also been rumored that the trading unit still holds billions in cash left over from its role as Yukos’ cashflow handler.
