Trust sold former assets of Ruspetro for 20 billion rubles

After several years of unsuccessful attempts, Trust finally managed to find a buyer for the former Ruspetro assets. The unnamed winner during the auction received fields in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug with reserves of 127 million tons of oil, paying 20 billion rubles – 2.6 times more than the initial price. According to experts, the transaction was completed at a premium, and the buyer will have to invest significant funds in the development of production at these fields.

Trust managed to sell at an auction the oil producing structures of JSC Inga and JSC Trans-Oil for 20 billion rubles, which were the main assets of the private oil company Ruspetro. This is almost 2.6 times the initial price. The bank did not disclose the name of the buyer, but, according to the auction site, applications were received from six applicants. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, structures associated with large oil companies participated in the auction. During its previous deal with oil assets, at the end of 2020, Trust sold Uralneftegazprom, which is developing oil and gas condensate fields in the Orenburg region, to Zarubezhneft.

Inga and Trans-Oil own licenses for the East Inginsky, Pottymsko-Inginsky and Palyanovsky areas in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (total recoverable reserves are 127 million tons of oil and 23 billion cubic meters of gas), where fields classified as the Krasnoleninsk group are located. Production of Inga and Trans-Oil in 2022 amounted to 120 thousand tons of oil, revenue – 3.5 billion rubles, EBITDA – only 700 million rubles.

According to Kommersant, the Inga and Trans-Oil areas border on the Yem-Egovsky, Palyanovsky, Kamenny areas of Rosneft, the Palyanovskaya area of ​​Gazprom Neft and the Talinsky area of ​​Nyaganneft (part of the Independent Oil and Gas Company of Eduard Khudainatov ). From the south, the Pottym-Inginsky site also borders on the eastern part of the Kamenny site of LUKOIL.

The shareholders of Ruspetro were former managers of RAO UES. As of the beginning of 2019, the owners of the asset were Limolines Transport Ltd (25.16%; it was associated with the ex-head of MOEK Andrey Likhachev), Alexander Chistyakov (15.7%), Otkritie Holding and its structure Otkritie Investments Cyprus ( 33.87%), as well as Makayla Investments BVI (9.9%) of Andrey Rappoport.

First, Trust initiated the bankruptcy of Inga and Trans-Oil, as well as the management company Ruspetro JSC.

The reason was a default on obligations (totaling more than $300 million), which they committed to the main creditor at the end of 2019. After the companies were declared bankrupt, Trust repeatedly tried to sell the right to claim debt against the former Ruspetro structures, but to no avail. Only this year did Inga and Trans-Oil completely come under the control of Trust, which allowed the bank to sell them at auction. In June 2023, the bank announced the settlement of debt to creditors for 24 billion rubles, the lion’s share falling on the bank itself. This is generally in line with the sale price at auction.

The fact that a deal with these assets took place after several years of attempts first by shareholders and then by the creditor bank to attract an investor suggests that industry players are reviving their interest in developing and investing in the resource base, says Karen Dashyan from Advance Capital. He notes that the value of this asset lies in its fairly high resource base, as well as the large investments already made in infrastructure for oil production and treatment, and access to the Transneft oil pipeline. Despite the increase in the starting price by 2.6 times, in terms of reserves, the estimate is 20 billion rubles. is quite adequate, but with a high probability not all volumes will be involved in development, Mr. Dashyan believes. He explains that the use of high production technologies and significant investments will be required, which may not be economically feasible even with the current favorable market conditions and a weak ruble. The assets were probably sold to a large oil company, the expert believes; taking into account geological risks, the valuation of the asset contains a premium, on the one hand, for its size, and on the other, reflects the absence of other large private assets that could now be purchased on the market.

Dmitry Kozlov