MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow Arbitration Court has adjourned until October 4 hearings on a motion filed by Yukos to invalidate an auction that sold its main production unit, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom Monday.
Yukos is also seeking 388.3 billion rubles in damages ($14.5 billion) for the sale of a 76.79% stake in Yuganksneftegaz at an auction in December 2004 to cover the crippling tax arrears of its parent company.
The hearing was postponed so that extra materials could be submitted.
The court has already put off the hearings on July 13 to bring Rikon, the nominal holder of Yugansk shares, into the proceedings.
The Yukos group, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term after being convicted of fraud in May 2005, filed a motion against the auction last May citing numerous violations of Russian and international laws. Yukos lawyers said the Russian federal property management fund deliberately understated the initial price of the package.
Yukos demands that the fund, the Finance Ministry and a number of companies whose subsidiaries participated in the auction compensate the loss that the company sustained after Yugansk was sold.
The Federal Bailiffs Service ruled November 18, 2004 that the Yugansk stake be sold to pay part of the company's $20 billion tax debt. Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft bought the stake for $9.35 billion through Baikal Finance Group that had emerged out of nowhere to win the auction.
The Yukos group was declared bankrupt in August and now faces a total of $16.6 billion in claims from creditors, including Yuganskneftegaz ($4.07 bln), the Federal Tax Service ($11.6 bln), Rosneft ($482 mln) and more than 20 other companies.
