Surgutneftegaz buyer of Yukos, says newspaper
AFP, Moscow
The cash-rich private oil company Surgutneftegaz is the mystery purchaser of the main assets of the Yukos empire, auctioned for 9.35 billion dollars (7.02 billion euros) to a shell company on Sunday, the daily newspaper Gazeta said on Tuesday. Analysts quoted by the paper, which described Surgutneftegaz as friendly to the administration of President Vladimir Putin, said the company might later sell all or part of the Yukos assets on to Gazprom, the state-owned gas concern which has been widely rumoured as the intended final purchaser of the oil interests. Other analysts have already named Surgutneftegaz as the possible buyer of the Yukos assets, which were put on the block to pay off a massive tax bill claimed by the Russian government. Gazeta added that two people who represented the obscure Baikalfinansgroup company, which bidded successfully for the assets at Sunday's auction in the city of Tver, were linked to Surgutneftegaz.
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