Freeze on 15% Yukos stake in Sibneft

ROMAN Abramovich loomed large over the Yukos affair today as the embattled company lost almost half the £2.6bn of shares it still owns in the billionaire's oil empire Sibneft.

A court in the Chukotka region of Russia, where Abramovich is governor, has frozen a 15% stake in Sibneft, part of the 35% Yukos has considered selling to settle its tax dispute with the Russian authorities.

Abramovich and his fellow core shareholders have been battling to disentangle Sibneft from its mega-merger with Yukos since October's arrest of former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Stephen O'Sullivan, analyst at Moscow-based United Financial Group, said: 'We don't believe this move has anything to do with the settlement of Yukos' tax bill.

'Sibneft's former principals have effectively blocked any attempt to sell this 15% stake should any decision to sell the entire 35% stake belonging to Yukos be made.'

Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev are standing trial in Russia for fraud and tax evasion. Yukos owes more than $8bn in back taxes and may now try to accumulate cash to pay claims for 2000.

Following last year's merger with Sibneft, Yukos controlled a 92% stake but Sibneft's core shareholders never ceded management control. Yukos lost 57% last month when a share issue was declared illegal.

Analysts believe the remaining 20% share in Sibneft will eventually be bought back from the Kremlin by Abramovich, rather than going directly to a supermajor looking to expand into Russia.