THE Russian oligarch at the centre of a shareholder loan scandal at Sibir, the London listed oil company, has agreed to sell $350m worth (£237m) of his personal assets, including a stunning $250m villa in the south of France, to repay the debt. The agreement was hammered out over the past week by lawyers for Sibir and Chalva Tchigirinski, Sibir’s largest investor. Details of the deal emerged as another bidder surfaced for the stricken company. Rosneft, the Kremlin-owned oil giant, is understood to have contacted the company about making a bid. Igor Sechin, chairman of the company and also deputy prime minister of Russia, is leading the talks. TNK-BP has also been sounding out investors about their willingness to sell. Merrill Lynch was this weekend carrying out a valuation of the company in anticipation of forthcoming offers. Shares in Sibir, once the most valuable company on London’s junior AIM market, have been suspended since February when it was revealed that the company had loaned $325m to Tchigirinski. Since then it has been working to recover the money. An internal investigation, led by Ernst & Young, has since found that between $328m and $400m in company funds have been allegedly misappropriated. The asset sale means that Sibir will likely be able to recover some if not all of the missing money. Under the memorandum of understanding, the Moscow property tycoon has until the end of the year to sell $350m-worth of personal assets to repay the money owed to the company. Among the assets included in the agreement are the palatial Villa Maria Irina in Cap Martin. The clifftop property overlooking Monaco is valued at $250m, making it one of the most expensive residences in the world and includes its own helipad and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Tchigirinski has also agreed to sell a £14m house in Eaton Square, Belgravia. The deal removes a cloud hanging over a company that operationally is performing well and could prompt potential bidders, who have shied away from making formal offers because of the uncertainty over the missing money, to come forward. Sibir’s main assets, the Salym oilfield in Siberia and a Moscow refinery, are highly prized. Its corporate reputation is in tatters however. Earlier this month the Sibir board fired chief executive Henry Cameron, who had approved the loans, and started High Court proceedings against him and Tchigirinski. The latter and his business partner, Igor Kesaev, each own 23.5% of Sibir but Tchigirinski pledged the shares as collateral for outstanding loans from Sberbank. The Kremlin-controlled bank now holds the 47% stake as collateral. Another 18% of the company is owned by the City of Moscow. Analysts believe that once the smoke clears Sibir will end up in the hands of a Russian buyer. Analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove valued the company in February at 400p per share, or £1.5 billion. ，英语论文题目，英语论文范文 |
