By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Oct. 17 -- Yukos Finance BV, a Netherlands subsidiary of the Russian oil company, offered to buy 13,760,992 shares of contractor Kværner ASA of Norway for 15 kroner/share.
Those shares would equal 12.9% of Kværner stock. Yukos Finance (YF) already held 12,897,487 Kværner shares, or about 12.1% of the issued stock.
The offer will terminate at 4 p.m. Oct. 22, Oslo time.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, CEO of Yukos Oil Co., said the plan to increase YF's holding in Kværner had two goals. "Firstly, to reinforce Yukos's commitment to a key business partner and ensure the continued smooth operation of Kværner's hydrocarbon engineering business.
"Secondly, we expect that restructuring of Kværner may be required and if in the course of any such restructuring a decision should be made to sell certain divisions of Kværner, Yukos would actively consider purchasing Kværner's Hydrocarbons (London) subsidiary and the Process Technology business of Kværner's Engineering & Construction (London) division.
"Any new issue of shares should also be considered together with other options for the continued financial viability of Kværner. We expect that the opinions of new shareholders will also be taken into account when forming a new board of directors," Khodorkovsky said.