Russia's Rosneft buys Yukos assets from mystery company

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft bought a row of valuable assets on Monday formerly owned by shattered oil major Yukos, Rosneft said in a statement.

Rosneft bought a group of trading companies and related assets, including Yukos' former headquarters in central Moscow, from a shadowy company called Prana that won the assets at a Yukos bankruptcy auction in May.

Prana beat out Rosneft at the auction with a winning bid of 3.9 billion dollars (2.9 billion euros), setting off a storm of speculation about who was behind the previously unknown company.

Rosneft spokesman Nikolai Manvelov would not disclose the price of the sale, but said: "Rosneft got all the Prana assets it was interested in."

Once Russia's largest private company,...