Investors offering to rescue and take over Russian oil firm Yukos see value in the company, consortium head Konstantin Kagalovsky told Reuters yesterday, but he declined to reveal the extent of their funds.
Mr Kagalovsky, an aide to former President Boris Yeltsin and a senior Yukos executive from 2000-02, said in an interview he had sent the proposal to main shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is on trial for fraud and tax evasion.
"The investors want to make money on the fact that, if the company has no debts, its capitalisation will go up," he told Reuters by telephone from Britain.
"It's a normal financial investment." In a letter sent to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the British-based investor group offered to pay Yukos's multi-billion-dollar tax bill and bail out Mr Khodorkovsky in return for the controlling stake he and his partners own.
Yukos, Russia's largest oil producer, faces collapse under $7 billion in demands for back taxes, with officials seemingly intent on punishing both Mr Khodorkovsky and his company for his political ambitions.
The investors are silent on how much they could pay, but Mr Kagalovsky said they had enough funds. Financial markets have greeted the offer with scepticism.
"Our intentions are serious. You don't joke about these sorts of things. Billions are at stake," he said.
Yukos faces a back tax demand of $3.4 billion that is already in force and another $3.4 billion claim is pending. Its tax bill could top $10 billion after further audits, and Mr Khodorkovsky faces a personal bill of at least $1 billion.
Mr Kagalovsky said he was the only member of the consortium who had had interests in Russia.
Mr Kagalovsky, 46, has a long track record as a player in the politics, finance and business in the turbulent Russia of the 1990s.
He was a close adviser to Mr Yeltsin in the first years after the fall of the Soviet Union, personally meeting foreign leaders to negotiate loans to keep Russia afloat.
Russia's man at the IMF from 1992-94, he later joined Mr Khodorkovsky's Bank Menatep and was involved in its purchase of Yukos under the "loans for shares" scheme, the privatisation of industry at knock-down prices before Mr Yeltin's 1996 election.
He became a member of Menatep's board in 1999 and later served on the Yukos board of directors. In 2003, he ran for Russia's lower house of parliament on the liberal Yabloko party list. He failed to win a seat.
Mr Kagalovsky said that George Miller, who signed the letter to Mr Putin, was not a member of the consortium.
For a text of the letter, please click here Mr Khodorkovsky reacted to the offer through his lawyer during a break in his trial yesterday.
"Mikhail Khodorkovsky... welcomes any actions aimed at resolving the situation around the company. In any case, the last word remains with the board and he hopes it will make the right decision," lawyer Genrikh Padva told reporters.
Mr Khodorkovsky has reportedly agreed to hand over his shares to the state for nothing in return for Yukos's rescue, but the offer has been ignored by officials apparently intent on breaking up the company.
Yukos produces 1.7 million barrels per day - a fifth of Russia's oil.