yukos zahlt nicht mehr..
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency S&P cut
Russia's YUKOS to default grade on Tuesday for
missing a payment on a Western bank loan after the stricken oil
major was stripped of its key production unit.
Analysts said the downgrade recognised the hopeless position
of YUKOS, Russia's largest oil exporter until the state sold off
its Yuganskneftegaz unit on Dec. 19 to recover record tax debts.
"The cut only confirmed the obvious -- the company has been
unable to properly service its operations for quite a while,"
said Steven Dashevsky, oil analyst at Aton brokerage in Moscow.
Deprived of its main cash cow Yugansk, whose output is worth
nearly $40 million a day at current oil prices, it was clear
YUKOS would no longer be able to meet its commitments even
though its borrowing was modest for a company of its size.
"Given the current state of affairs at YUKOS I would not say
that the news (on the missed payment) came as a big shock," said
Jeffrey Woodruff from Fitch Ratings, which does not have a
rating on YUKOS. "It was an eventual expectation."
YUKOS borrowed a total of $2.6 billion via two loans: a $1
billion facility organised by Citibank and a second $1.6
billion loan funded by YUKOS's principal owners via Societe
Generale .
The firm managed to reduce the outstanding amount to about
$1.5 billion on both credits as of the end of November.
DISMEMBERMENT LOOMS
YUKOS's shares sank by 25 percent to 20 roubles,
prompting the MICEX bourse to suspend trading twice. YUKOS is
now worth less than $2 billion -- compared with more than $40
billion last year when it was Russia's largest listed company.
YUKOS faces ruin under $27.5 billion in back tax claims,
with only about half extinguished by the sale of Yugansk for
$9.4 billion and the company's own tax payments of $4.5 billion.
For recovery of the remainder, other YUKOS assets, such as
two smaller oil units and five refineries, could yet come under
the hammer, analysts expect.
State oil firm Rosneft emerged as winner of the Yugansk
auction even though YUKOS, in a pre-emptive move, filed for
bankruptcy in the United States and won a U.S. court restraining
order on the sale.
The auction was the culmination of a Kremlin campaign to
crush YUKOS's politically ambitious principal owner, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, and to seize control of strategic sectors of the
economy sold off in the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s.
Khodorkovsky, on trial for fraud and tax evasion, lambasted
the sale in an open letter from his prison cell on Tuesday as
"the most senseless and destructive event for the economy" since
President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.
MISSED PAYMENT
Although the firm previously announced events of default on
both loans, the default notices had merely enabled the company's
creditors to enforce security provisions, said S&P.
"Until recently, YUKOS had continued payments on its debt.
The missed interest payment on Dec. 27, however, constitutes a
default under S&P criteria," said Elena Anankina from S&P.
S&P lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior
secured bank loan ratings on YUKOS to 'D' from 'CC'. S&P did not
specify on which of the two credits YUKOS had missed the
payment, but industry sources said it was the Citibank facility.
The $1 billion loan was organised, managed and arranged by
Citi, Commerzbank , Credit Lyonnais , Deutsche
Bank , HSBC , ING Bank , BNP
Paribas , and the Dutch unit of UFJ , a
Japanese bank.
YUKOS was using Yugansk exports as collateral to pay the
interest and the principal of the debt.
"With the departure of Yugansk, which represented 60 percent
of its oil output and exports, the firm is likely to be forced
to declare force majeure on its exports," said a trader with a
Western major.
"We have been waiting either for a force majeure notice or a
regular cargo nomination programme for January over the past few
weeks. Nothing has happened so far, but time is running out".
((Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Edmund Klamann;
Reuters Messaging: dmitri.zhdannikov.reuters.com@reuters.net,
Moscow Newsroom, + 7 095 775 12 42))
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency S&P cut
Russia's YUKOS to default grade on Tuesday for
missing a payment on a Western bank loan after the stricken oil
major was stripped of its key production unit.
Analysts said the downgrade recognised the hopeless position
of YUKOS, Russia's largest oil exporter until the state sold off
its Yuganskneftegaz unit on Dec. 19 to recover record tax debts.
"The cut only confirmed the obvious -- the company has been
unable to properly service its operations for quite a while,"
said Steven Dashevsky, oil analyst at Aton brokerage in Moscow.
Deprived of its main cash cow Yugansk, whose output is worth
nearly $40 million a day at current oil prices, it was clear
YUKOS would no longer be able to meet its commitments even
though its borrowing was modest for a company of its size.
"Given the current state of affairs at YUKOS I would not say
that the news (on the missed payment) came as a big shock," said
Jeffrey Woodruff from Fitch Ratings, which does not have a
rating on YUKOS. "It was an eventual expectation."
YUKOS borrowed a total of $2.6 billion via two loans: a $1
billion facility organised by Citibank and a second $1.6
billion loan funded by YUKOS's principal owners via Societe
Generale .
The firm managed to reduce the outstanding amount to about
$1.5 billion on both credits as of the end of November.
DISMEMBERMENT LOOMS
YUKOS's shares sank by 25 percent to 20 roubles,
prompting the MICEX bourse to suspend trading twice. YUKOS is
now worth less than $2 billion -- compared with more than $40
billion last year when it was Russia's largest listed company.
YUKOS faces ruin under $27.5 billion in back tax claims,
with only about half extinguished by the sale of Yugansk for
$9.4 billion and the company's own tax payments of $4.5 billion.
For recovery of the remainder, other YUKOS assets, such as
two smaller oil units and five refineries, could yet come under
the hammer, analysts expect.
State oil firm Rosneft emerged as winner of the Yugansk
auction even though YUKOS, in a pre-emptive move, filed for
bankruptcy in the United States and won a U.S. court restraining
order on the sale.
The auction was the culmination of a Kremlin campaign to
crush YUKOS's politically ambitious principal owner, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, and to seize control of strategic sectors of the
economy sold off in the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s.
Khodorkovsky, on trial for fraud and tax evasion, lambasted
the sale in an open letter from his prison cell on Tuesday as
"the most senseless and destructive event for the economy" since
President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.
MISSED PAYMENT
Although the firm previously announced events of default on
both loans, the default notices had merely enabled the company's
creditors to enforce security provisions, said S&P.
"Until recently, YUKOS had continued payments on its debt.
The missed interest payment on Dec. 27, however, constitutes a
default under S&P criteria," said Elena Anankina from S&P.
S&P lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior
secured bank loan ratings on YUKOS to 'D' from 'CC'. S&P did not
specify on which of the two credits YUKOS had missed the
payment, but industry sources said it was the Citibank facility.
The $1 billion loan was organised, managed and arranged by
Citi, Commerzbank , Credit Lyonnais , Deutsche
Bank , HSBC , ING Bank , BNP
Paribas , and the Dutch unit of UFJ , a
Japanese bank.
YUKOS was using Yugansk exports as collateral to pay the
interest and the principal of the debt.
"With the departure of Yugansk, which represented 60 percent
of its oil output and exports, the firm is likely to be forced
to declare force majeure on its exports," said a trader with a
Western major.
"We have been waiting either for a force majeure notice or a
regular cargo nomination programme for January over the past few
weeks. Nothing has happened so far, but time is running out".
((Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Edmund Klamann;
Reuters Messaging: dmitri.zhdannikov.reuters.com@reuters.net,
Moscow Newsroom, + 7 095 775 12 42))
Gruß Pichel |
