Italian energy companies Eni and Enel have joined forces with Russian group ESN to participate in the next auction of assets of the stricken oil company Yukos, Russian media said on Wednesday.
The three companies have paid a 1.1-billion dollar (827 million-euro) deposit via a joint company, Energogaz, to participate in the auction next Wednesday, the Vedomosti newspaper reported. Energogaz is 49-percent owned by Eni and Enel and 51-percent owned by ESN, the paper said, citing a source close to Energogaz.
At next week's auction 22 Yukos assets will be sold as one package, including a 20-percent stake in the oil producing arm of the Gazprom gas giant, Gazprom Neft, and two Yukos subsidiaries, Arktikgaz and Urengoil. The starting price for the stake has been fixed at 5.59 billion dollars (4.2 billion euros).
The auction continues the sale of the vast assets of Yukos, which was Russia's largest oil producer until it was controversially dismembered in the courts starting in 2003 and its former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was jailed on embezzlement charges. ESN is headed by Russian billionaire Grigory Beryozkin and has close links to Gazprom, the English-language Moscow Times said.