The company is currently owned by Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP.
Consortium OVIT comprises Russia's No. 1 independent natural gas producer Itera and ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), an overseas exploration unit of India's state-owned oil and natural gas corporation ONGC. Itera holds a 51% stake in the consortium, while OVL holds 49%.
At their extraordinary meeting April 28, Itera shareholders authorized the company's director general to sign a document allowing OVIT to bid for 96.86% of the charter capital of Udmurtneft, owned by TNK-BP Holding and Novy Investment Ltd.
April 28 was the last day when companies could submit their bids to acquire a controlling interest in Udmurtneft. The TNK-BP board of directors will discuss an auction procedure at its meeting in late May.
Earlier reports said Deutsche Bank, running the sell side of the deal, became the nominal holder of 99.49% of ordinary and 88.99% of preferred non-documentary shares of Udmurtneft on April 20.
The Russian anti-monopoly watchdog allowed ten Russian and foreign firms to bid for a controlling interest in Udmurtneft.
Udmurtneft, which has annual oil production of some 6 million metric tons (120,500 bbl/d), is currently developing 26 oil fields in the region.
Udmurtneft has a charter capital of 3.56 million rubles (about $130,000) divided into 2,671,549 ordinary and 890,517 preferred shares, each with a face value of 1 ruble (about $0.03).
