Kerimov 'not Yukos' saviour'

The investment company of billionaire Suleiman Kerimov has denied local media reports that the Duma deputy had emerged as a white knight for bankrupt oil producer Yukos and was in talks to buy its debts.

Moscow-based financial daily Kommersant, quoting unnamed sources close to Yukos' creditors, reported today that Kerimov, who owns investment group Nafta Moskva, had held talks with Yukos president Steven Theede to take over the debts.

But Nafta Moskva denied the report in a statement.

"Neither Nafta Moskva nor its representatives have taken part or intend to take part in any negotiations concerning Yukos, or in the purchase of its shares," it said.

Yukos board chairman Viktor Gerashchenko told radio station Ekho Moskvy last week that a mysterious investor had proposed to the owners of the oil firm to pay its debts and take it over.

Officials at Yukos and Nafta Moskva were not immediately available for comment and Kommersant had no further details.

Yukos was declared bankrupt by a Moscow court on Tuesday. The court-appointed receiver has assessed Yukos assets at $17.7 billion, less than its liabilities, while lawyers for the company argue the company is worth at least twice as much.

Yukos was hit with billions of dollars in back-tax bills which it says was a politically motivated attempt by the Kremlin to ruin it and its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now serving an eight-year sentence in a Siberian prison.

Once Russia's largest company by value, Yukos says it had already paid back over $20 billion of taxes out of the total of $33 billion. But the total outstanding keeps snowballing as the state and state-run Rosneft present more claims.

The intensely secretive Kerimov is little known in the West.

A Dagestani-born deputy in the lower house of parliament, he was listed as Russia's eighth-richest man by Forbes magazine, clocking in at $7.1 billion. He was also number 40 in the 2006 Sunday Times Europe's richest 50 list.

British media reports said that pop stars Christina Aguilera and Shakira were paid a £580,000 ($1.10 million) each to sing at Kerimov's 40th birthday party in Moscow recently.

Nafta Moskva owns Russian gold and silver miner Polymetal. It also holds stakes of around 4% of gas monopoly Gazprom and 6% of state bank Sberbank, according to analysts and reports in the Russian media.

Polymetal is seeking a London listing in the first half of 2007.