Rosneft offers CFO post to U.S. banker - paper

MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) -- Rosneft, Russia's state-owned oil company, has invited a U.S. investment banker working in Russia to become the company's chief financial officer in the run-up to its expected initial public offering, a respected Russian daily said Tuesday.

According to Vedomosti, Peter O'Brien, who is currently a vice president of the Russian office of U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley, has a long association with Rosneft and excellent experience in leading Russian companies to IPOs.

An investment banker told the newspaper that O'Brien has been working closely with Rosneft for a long time and worked directly with its top management, which meant he knew the company situation well.

O'Brien joined Morgan Stanley from Russian investment bank Troika Dialog in 2000 and worked on some of the bank's biggest deals in Russia, including the LUKoil [RTS:LKHO] and Novatek [RTS:NVTK] IPOs.

Rosneft, Russia's second biggest crude producer, announced its plans to float shares on the domestic and international markets last year in a bid to pay part of its multi-billion debt. Rosneft's state parent company, Rosneftegaz, borrowed $7.5 billion from a consortium of Western banks in 2005 as a bridging loan ahead of the IPO. According to market experts, the sale of up to 30% of company's shares could bring in about $20 bln.

However, Rosneft CFO Sergei Alexeyev left the company in early February and despite the Rosneft president's promises to take the IPO preparation under his personal control, according to the paper, experts started speculating that the floating of company's shares could be delayed or even never happen.

Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref said Tuesday that Rosenft shares would be floated no later than October.

According to the paper, the company's offer to O'Brien indicates that Rosneft, which is reportedly saddled with debts of $10.9 billion after buying the former main production unit of embattled Yukos, is serious about its original plans and intends to prepare the IPO in strict compliance with the approved schedule.

Vedomosti quoted several investment bankers as saying that O'Brien was the ideal candidature for Rosneft because he is an IPO expert, a good negotiator and is familiar with the company's finances.

Neither O'Brian nor Rosneft confirmed the offer, the newspaper said.

In another interview with Vedomosti, Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said it was possible that Rosneft could merge with Siberian-based oil company Surgutneftegaz, citing the existing trend of consolidation among crude producers aimed at alleviating risks and improving competitiveness on global markets. According to Khristenko, Rosneft in its current form is capable of pumping 100 million metric tons of crude oil by 2010, making consolidation a reasonable prospect at a future date. No indication of a possible timeline or the probability of the merger was given during the interview.