The US-based ConocoPhillips is generally considered preferential bidder for the biggest Russian oil company's block after President Vladimir Putin approved its investment plans for this country.
The ConocoPhillips may be the most likely purchaser-but it is not the only bidder, on an announcement of a week ago, which did not specify whatever company or person on the race. One, at least, is known now.
The Moscow-based daily Vedomosti mentioned David Guggenheim as a LUKoil bidder. He chairs the Directors' Board of the New York-based Dabir International Ltd. The paper refers to him as member of a tycoon dynasty that established a global network of modern art museums in 1937. However, neither the Solomon Guggenheim Museum nor the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation has confirmed that David is of the celebrated family-a kinship on which he insisted in a Vedomosti interview.
He says he hates to be in the limelight, and so is obscure to the museum and the foundation alike. David Guggenheim used the same pretext to keep silent about his business, and say neither yes nor no about the prospective LUKoil deal.
"We surely want more stock bidders to come up-but we surely prefer people who know just what oil biz is about," a functionary of Russia's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade remarked on the matter.
"This is certainly a welcome bid, even though the bidder is somewhat exotic," say spokesmen of the Ministry of Power Industry.
No one of economic experts Vedomosti turned to has ever heard about David Guggenheim or his business. The LUKoil will hardly greet a dark horse as holder, said Sergei Suverov, Zenith bank analyst. But then, administrative officers may use his sheer presence as a trump as they negotiate with the ConocoPhillips about pricing the block.
Stephen Dashevsky of the Aton investment company is of a contrasting opinion. "I don't think the company will move a finger as an obscure rival appears. President Putin blessed the ConocoPhillips deal, so it is as good as made," he said.
