MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Trading System, the country's main stock exchange, said Wednesday it would continue trading in shares of the bankrupt oil company Yukos [RTS: YUKO] pending a decision by its board.
The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) said it would suspend trading in Yukos shares as of Wednesday, after the Federal Arbitration Court upheld a lower court's decision to launch bankruptcy proceedings against the company.
Lawyers acting for Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, had appealed against the August 1 ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which came after three years of litigation with tax authorities over the company's tax arrears.
Yukos, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term in Siberia after being convicted of fraud in May 2005, faces a total of $16.6 billion in claims from creditors, including its former core production unit Yuganskneftegaz ($4.07 bln), which is now owned by state-controlled oil company Rosneft; the Federal Tax Service ($11.6 bln); Rosneft itself ($482 mln); and more than 20 other companies.
