Yukos drops banks from court bid

Russian oil company Yukos has dropped the threat of legal action against five banks it had accused of involvement in the sale of its key Yugansk unit.

State-owned Rosneft bought the unit for $9.3bn (£5bn) after Yukos was forced to sell assets to meet a $27.5bn tax bill. Yukos says the sale was illegal and is pursuing damages in a US court. Its lawyers now accept ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Calyon, JP Morgan Chase Bank, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein were not involved in the sale financing. However, Yukos still has an outstanding complaint against Deutsche Bank, which it alleges to be the leader of a consortium that was behind a bid for Yugansk by state gas monopoly Gazprom. The company has also accused Gazprom, the Russian Federation and two other Russian firms.

Gazprom had been expected to win the December auction, but ended up not bidding. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company, which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The firm, whose finance chief is now based in the US, filed for bankruptcy in Houston, Texas, and sought a court injunction against the sale. But Deutsche Bank has suggested Yukos artificially manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. A hearing scheduled for February 16 and 17 will rule on whether the US court has jurisdiction in the case.