Arranging the loan, of early October 2003, was the SG Corporate & Investment Banking. The Societe Generale has not for today notified the Yukos about default prospects, but one may come up, said the boss.
As the Yukos announced in a press release yesterday, banks involved in a billion dollar syndicated pre-export loan notified the company, April 23, on a tentative default. They named for the main reasons a demand of Russia's Tax Ministry, of April 14, to pay taxes and fines to 99,375,538,234 roubles-more than three billion dollars, and a Moscow Arbitration Court verdict of April 15, which banned corporate asset alienation and encumbrance.
As Yukos creditors and rating agencies see it, the Tax Ministry move badly dampened company creditability and alarmed the world's foremost financial organisations, warned Mr. Misamore.
As the banking notification confirms, the Yukos remains free to make unlimited export transactions related to the loan. At the same time, the creditor banks may exercise their rights on banking accounts whose turnover comes as their guarantee.
The Societe Generale S.A. is coordinator, agent and authorised organiser on the particular loan. There are other authorised organisers-Citibank N.A., Commerzbank AG, Credit Lyonnais S.A., Deutschebank AG, HSBC Bank Plc, ING Bank N.V., KBC Bank N.V., BNP Paribas, and UFJ Bank Nederland N.N. The Societe Generale Vostok, Commerzbank/Eurasia and Credit Lyonnais Rusbank are passporting transactions.
The Yukos deems the Tax Ministry claim and its amount legally ungrounded, and arbitration court guarantees bloated out of all proportion, warned the finance manager. The Yukos is a good taxpayer, and the claims baffle it, he added.
If the company has to pay $3.5 billion on the ministry's claim, it may have to draw money from the finance market, Mr. Misamore said on an earlier occasion. The company presently possesses a billion dollars, he now specified.
A controversial Yukos-Sibneft merger remains valid, and is going on, stressed the manager.
