The amount?
Probably close to $3 billion. But don’t expect an exact reckoning of Abramovich’s proceeds from the sale of his stake in Russia’s No. 6 oil company, Sibneft, to No. 2 Yukos in a $15 billion deal that creates YukosSibneft, the second-largest oil company in the world by reserves, behind only Exxon Mobil.
Much about the remarkable 36-year-old Abramovich -- one of Russia’s foremost oligarchs -- remains an enigma wrapped in a financial statement tucked inside a detective novel. He chose to anonymously attend the April 22 press conference that announced the merger, hanging out in the back of the room, barely recognizable after shaving his trademark stubbly beard.
What is known about Abramovich, however, is fascinating. He is understood to have been the largest of the “core shareholders” of Sibneft and is expected to pocket the lion’s share of the $3 billion in cash that Yukos paid for Sibneft. In addition, he should acquire most of the 29 percent of YukosSibneft shares set aside for Sibneft investors (whose identities are a well-kept secret).
Abramovich held no formal post at Sibneft and took little visible part in running the company -- although his car was often parked outside Sibneft’s Moscow headquarters. “We meet with Sibneft on a weekly basis, and Abramovich has never participated,” reports Brunswick UBS Warburg analyst Paul Cullison.
Yet Abramovich appears to have had a huge impact on Sibneft since the 2001 departure from Russia of the oil company’s founder -- and Abramovich’s mentor -- Boris Berezovsky. (Berezovsky, who acquired Sibneft’s assets from the state for $100 million in 1995'96, is currently in the U.K.; he is wanted in Russia on fraud charges.) In the two years leading up to the merger with Yukos, Sibneft boosted oil production by half, paid out almost $2 billion in dividends and saw its share price rise sevenfold.
Little is known about Abramovich’s past. Orphaned at age three, he was raised by his grandparents in Komi, an oil-rich republic that straddles the Arctic Circle. He dropped out of two colleges, served in the army and turned up in Moscow in 1991, working as an oil trader. A few years later he linked up with Berezovsky, joining Sibneft’s first board of directors.
Some in Moscow now speculate that the founding oligarch prompted the sale of Sibneft. Others disagree, saying that Abramovich and Sibneft CEO Eugene Shvidler eased Berezovsky out in 2001. In any case, the puzzle of who sold what to whom and for how much in the YukosSibneft deal may become clearer in a year: That is when the company is to seek a New York share listing, requiring it to divulge primary owners.
Abramovich’s future is wide open. The young tycoon is said to be half-owner of Russian Aluminum, which accounts for 75 percent of the country’s aluminum output. As a flush oilman, Abramovich could conceivably bid for Surgutneftegaz, the No. 4 Russian oil producer, which has languished under its Soviet-era chief executive, Vladimir Bogdanov. Surgut’s stock market value relative to its oil reserves is one fifth that of Sibneft at the time of the merger, and unknown buyers have been snapping up blocks of Surgut shares.
Some Abramovich watchers, however, say he may focus on politics. Three years ago he was elected governor of Chukotka, a bleak Arctic province of 76,000 people across the Bering Strait from Alaska. His personal income tax of $30 million provides half the province’s budget. But any ambitions Abramovich harbors for Russia’s highest office may face a tough challenge: YukosSibneft CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is expected to run for president himself when Vladimir Putin steps down in 2008. That could be a very interesting election.
