TORNKVIST SPOKE ABOUT THE REASONS OF YUKOS BANKRUPTCY FOR THE FIRST TIME

TORNKVIST SPOKE ABOUT THE REASONS OF YUKOS BANKRUPTCY FOR THE FIRST TIME

TORNKVIST SPOKE ABOUT THE REASONS OF YUKOS BANKRUPTCY FOR THE FIRST TIME
Thornbjorn Tornqvist, who owns the Gunvor trader, told the representatives of Bloomberg his version of events related to the bankruptcy of Yukos oil company. For Tornqvist, the collapse of the company presented a unique opportunity not to be missed.

According to the words of the entrepreneur, which are quoted by RBC with reference to the book The World for Sale, published by Javier Blas and Jack Fairchy, he was warned of the possible collapse of Yukos in advance.

In the Yukos affair, the businessman does not reveal who were the unnamed sources. The businessman also could not know the details of what happened after the arrest of Khodorkovsky in advance. According to his version, it was about the readiness to deal with much larger volumes of oil sales than before.

It is known that Gunvor's turnover in the period from 2004 to 2012 increased 18.6 times from $ 5 billion to $ 93 billion.

If before the bankruptcy of YUKOS, Tornquist traded mainly in oil products, then later he actively moved to the market for transactions with crude oil. According to experts, the partner of Rosneft (which got the bulk of the assets of the bankrupt YUKOS) was able to take a leading place in the export of hydrocarbons, fixing a share in 60% of all export operations with oil by sea. Gunvor provided 30% of all oil trade deals from Russia.

Until 2014, Gennady Timchenko remained the co-founder of Gunvor and the main partner of Tornquist, who subsequently sold his stake, making the deal a day before he came under trade sanctions from the United States. Timchenko himself declined to comment on the Yukos case.

The Swedish businessman says that the reasons for the bankruptcy of the YUKOS company are Mikhail Khodorkovsky's refusal to interfere in politics, as well as the desire to sell the assets of the Russian company to the US businessmen.

Among potential buyers of Yukos, Tornquist names American companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

The opinion of the main owner of Gunvor has already been criticized by the press service of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who noted a significant proportion of banal propaganda in his statements. According to Maxim Dbar, representing the interests of Khodorkovsky, although negotiations on the possibility of selling YUKOS assets were conducted with the American side, the Russian government and President Putin were well informed about this.

In addition, Dbar notes that the experience of Sibneft, which was also negotiating the possibility of a takeover of the company by Western investors, did not lead to the collapse of the company, which at that time was owned by Roman Abramovich. Thus, the Russian authorities did not have any fundamental objections to the sale of oil assets to the foreign partners at that time.


09.04.2021