Abramovich sells off Sibneft, is now richer by $13 billion |
|
|
|
Published
:
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:05
|
MOSCOW: Roman Abramovich, the controversial owner of Chelsea Football Club in England and Russia's richest man, is selling off his holding in oil firm Sibneft to Russian public sector gas company Gazprom for $13 billion.
Forbes magazine, which described him early this year as the man, whose touches turn everything into crisp notes, had put his wealth at $14.7 billion.
The takeover is the biggest in Russian history. It follows the acquisition of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos by state firm Rosneft at the auctions. Khodorkovsky is now in jail on charges of tax evasion and related issues.
Yukos had at one time eyed Sibneft and was about to conclude a $11 billion deal when Khodorkovsky was arrested two years ago. The arrest and his subsequent jailing has been seen as poltically motivated as Khodorkovsky was known to have funded campaigns against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Compared to Khodorkovsky, the 38-year-old Abramovich is suave and politically well connected. He is also described as an astute financial and political operator despite his humble upbringing -- an orphan who was born and brought up in the Volga river town of Saratov. His momentous takeover of Chelsea, his spending nearly half a billion dollars on players and the football club's winning the first championship in 50 years, have all made him a hero.
Political analysts say Abramovich may now be wanting to dissociate from his past and his Russian connections. He has already divested his stake in RUSAL, the Russian aluminium producer, which is world's No. 3. He owns properties in London and Sussex.
Gazprom is availing of a record $12 billion loan from ABN AMRO, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to finance the deal. Once through, the company, the world's largest gas producer (660,000 barrels of oil a day) will have 72.7 percent holding in Sibneft.
Abramovich had owned stakes in Sibneft through his Millhouse Capital, a U.K.- registered company created in 2001 to manage his and his partners' assets.
Sibneft was created by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1995 through a decree that merged Soviet-era oil producing, refining, exploration and marketing assets into a single entity. Abramovich and former partner Boris Berezovsky had bought 85 per cent of Sibneft from the government in three auctions in 1995 and 1996 for about $200 million.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
