The owner of NNK, Eduard Khudainatov, created a new company, Saratovgazdobycha, reports. The main activity is the production of oil and associated petroleum gas. Why does Khudanytov need new company, when he already has NNK-Saratoneftegazdobycha? Unlike the established company, it already has licenses for hydrocarbon areas. It is very difficult to understand Khudainatov’s oil and gas empire. He is a leader in 9 enterprises and a founder in 10. The created "" is 99% owned by NNK-Razvitie, and it is 100% owned by Eduard Khudainatov. Why such difficulties? If they exist, then those who create them need them for something. One of the founders of “” is NGH-Nedra LLC, its contribution is 40 rubles. In turn, NNK Saratovneftegazdobycha is one of the founders of NGC Nedra with a contribution of 1000 rubles. All this suggests that Eduard Khudainatov is stirring up something through his companies. Simultaneously with the appearance of information about the creation of a new company by Khudainatov, it became known that largest supplier fuel in the region "Saratonefteprodukt" the main shareholder has changed. Instead of "" it became "RN-Regional Sales", the founder of which is 100% RN-Commerce. Both former and new shareholders. There is definitely something behind these seemingly completely unnecessary changes in the structures of Rosneft and NOC in the same period of time and in the same region. Experts suspected from the very beginning that NOC was created in 2012 not at all as a competitor to Rosneft, but as a secret assistant in the ongoing purchase of gas and oil fields.
Why “shine” yourself when there is Eduard Khudainatov? Perhaps the NNK-Saratovneftegazdobycha sections will be transferred to Saratogazdobycha, and then will be sold to Rosneft structures. With such a complex scheme of interaction between structures, as a result of the transaction it will be possible to “cut” any amount. And the NNK brand will not officially appear in the deal. Vassal of Rosneft? In February of this year, information appeared that Eduard Khudainatov was selling the NOC he created from scratch. However, the owner immediately denied the publication in the Vedomosti newspaper. The reason for the appearance of such a rumor was that NOC’s development strategy apparently did not come true. In 2014, NOC acquired its largest asset, Alliance Oil, from the family of Musa Bazhaev. After this, the company began actively buying licenses for oil production. But... prices for it collapsed and this greatly affected financial condition NNK. Most its debt was in dollars, and its oil was sold for rubles. At the end of 2016, debt exceeded EBITDA by almost six times.
Apparently, this was the reason that the planned competition was actually reduced to cooperation. In 2015–2016, NNK supplied raw materials to Rosneft, which was more than the six-month revenue of Khudainatov’s company. Rosneft became the main partner of NOC. It seemed to be a good thing, but when production at NOC fields began to fall, some of Khudainatov’s structures had to buy oil from other suppliers. Just to pay off Rosneft. Apparently, these purchases were unprofitable for NOC, because no one was selling oil below market prices. But even worse for Khudainatov was not fulfilling the contract with Rosneft. He knew this very well, since he had worked with him for a long time. Rosneft took full advantage of its position, bought oil from small producers and exported it. Therefore, NOC at low prices over time, oil became a kind of appendage of Rosneft, and the FAS even at one time considered them affiliated companies. Maybe that's how it was originally intended? Or Sechin and Khudainatov could have come to such an agreement after the failure of the NOC development strategy. Sechin is rushing to the rescue? In the close cooperation of Khudainatov, who at one time was the head of Rosneft, and, who invited him there and then replaced him in this post, there may definitely be mutual interest, which may have been formed and maintained for many years. And therefore it is not at all surprising that It was Sechin who came to the aid of Eduard Khudainatov. In April of this year, amid rumors about the sale of NNK, Rosneft acquired the Kondaneft company from it. The initial cost of the asset in 2014 was RUB 2.4 billion.
Kondaneft owned licenses for Kondinskoye, West Erginskoye, Chaprovskoye and Priobskoye oil fields. To develop only the first of them, it was necessary to spend . But apparently he doesn’t count government money. But he helped an old friend.
By the way, Khudainatov should purchase the assets of Alliance Oil. It was he who persuaded the head of VTB Andrei Kostin to provide a loan, the size of which could reach $4 billion. It is possible that Sechin did this on purpose. It was beneficial for him to have a spacer between Rosneft and the market in the form of NNK.
Khudaynatov is looking for money?
In desperation, Eduard Khudaynatov offered 25% of NOC to the Qatar Sovereign Fund. And here again I didn’t guess. It was at this time that the foundation was suspected of aiding terrorism. And Khudainatov had practically no choice. Either become an accomplice too, or stop negotiations.
In general, the “murky story” of cooperation with Eduard Khudainatov is still ongoing. And the end of the edge and the edge are not yet visible to her. NOC, apparently, will have to play its role in Rosneft projects more than once. And Eduard Khudainatov has apparently already come to terms with his role as a “Sechin gasket”.
Recently, it became known from various unofficial sources that E. Khudaynatov is going to sell the Independent Oil and Gas Company (NOC).
Recently, it became known from various unofficial sources that he was going to sell the Independent Oil and Gas Company ().
The information leak occurred in early February 2017, and it cannot be called accidental.
The history of NOC is a litmus test of current Russian reality.
It is probably difficult to call an independent NOC.
The situation became a little clearer when the actions of the NOC became clear.
The company collected crumbs from the oil and gas table of the Russian Federation, purchasing small and medium-sized companies with seemingly good assets.
What was probably not worth buying for Rosneft ended up in NOC.
There was nothing left to give out loans.
Ordinary people assumed that when NOC turned into a relatively large vertically integrated oil company, Rosneft would absorb it, as happened with the assets of YUKOS, ITERA, etc.
But in the current conditions, Rosneft will probably not be able to do this so easily.
Spiteful critics from the West, who had previously expressed doubts about the transparency of the recent Rosneft privatization deal, went further, saying that a certain offshore company of Caymanian jurisdiction was involved in the Rosneft privatization deal.
Previously, the participants in the transaction honestly stated that the share of participation was divided equally, and V. Putin even decided to have an audience with them.
Against this background, the bank is unable to secure a syndicated loan because the loan pool participants are worried about the transparency of the transaction and do not give money.
In this situation, Rosneft simply does not have the money to buy out the unprofitable asset represented by NNK.
And NOCs constantly need funds to repay loans, and the authorities will not tolerate this for long.
Is that why the leak happened to test the market?
VTB Bank is interested in expanding the number of shareholders of the Independent Oil and Gas Company, which is now owned by Igor Sechin’s associate Eduard Khudainatov. NOC bought assets before the fall in oil prices, and now it is increasing debts, postponing projects and loan payments
Eduard Khudainatov (Photo: Alexey Druzhinin / RIA Novosti)
VTB is interested in expanding the number of shareholders of the Independent Oil and Gas Company (NOC), especially if they can attract new money, or know-how, or markets,” Andrei Kostin, chairman of the bank’s board, told RBC. The company is now owned by Eduard Khudainatov, who is considered an associate of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. Khudainatov put NOC up for sale, Vedomosti wrote in early February. “Yes, we are aware. We, in principle, are even interested in this,” Kostin told RBC. Khudainatov himself denied information about the sale to RBC in early February. “I cannot confirm this information,” he told RBC after Kostin’s statement.
At the same time, NOC is looking for strategic partner: We have many interesting and promising projects, both up-stream and down-stream, Khudainatov told Energy Insider.
“In my opinion, the company is very promising and interesting. But this is a growing company, and it requires investment to develop the opportunities that it has,” Kostin explained. According to him, not only Russian but also foreign investors are actively interested in acquiring a stake in NOC. Kostin did not say whether any stake in NNK was pledged to VTB. NOC has no overdue debts, but the debts could have been restructured, the banker said. VTB will continue to work with NOC regardless of whether there is a deal, Kostin concluded.
Eduard Khudainatov, who is considered close to Rosneft President Igor Sechin, created NOC in 2013. Before that, in 2010-2012, Khudainatov headed Rosneft, and then gave up this post to Sechin, working for some more time as first vice president. NOC immediately began buying up small assets and production licenses, and in 2014 Khudainatov bought his largest asset, Alliance oil, from the Bazhaev family. Khudainatov bought Alliance oil at borrowed funds, wrote with reference to sources of Kommersant and Forbes, this was confirmed by RBC and an acquaintance of Khudainatov. According to Kommersant and Forbes, the transaction amount was $3.5-5 billion, RBC’s interlocutor says that the price was $4 billion. One of the creditors was VTB, Igor Sechin allegedly personally asked Andrei Kostin about this, Forbes wrote. RBC's interlocutor also names VTB as a creditor. A bank representative did not answer RBC's question. At the end of 2013, before delisting, Alliance oil was worth $3.7 billion, excluding debt, which amounted to $1.6 billion.
NOC began buying assets when oil prices were at their peak, and almost immediately after purchasing Alliance oil, in September 2014, prices collapsed. Back in June 2014, Brent cost $115 per barrel, and already in December it broke through $60 per barrel. Volatility continues to this day, although the decision by OPEC, Russia and a number of countries to freeze production has stabilized prices above $50 per barrel.
As a result, due to problems with financing, NOC postponed the development of the largest “greenfield” - the Payakhskoye field, Khudaynatov said. In 2015, NNK was unable to repay Eurobonds for $350 million, but agreed with creditors on refinancing. At the end of nine months of 2016, NNK's debt increased to $2 billion, and this is a heavy burden for the company: the debt burden is almost 6 EBITDA. Lenders prohibited NOC from increasing debt, and the company announced cost optimization.
Most of NOC's business comes from oil refining: in 2016, its only Khabarovsk oil refinery planned to process 4.7 million tons of oil, and its own production fell from 2.5 million to 2.3 million tons of oil. Refining margins in Russia fell in 2015-2017 due to tax maneuvers and falling oil prices, analysts and companies noted. Rosneft, for example, approached the government with a proposal to provide tax breaks to some plants, the criteria of which fall within its own refineries and the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery of NNK. Another problem for NOCs is the emphasis on hard-to-recover reserves, the development of which has become unprofitable given the low price of oil. By 2018, NOC planned to produce 4.8 million tons of oil, more than half of which would be from hard-to-recover reserves.
The financial condition of the entire NOC is not disclosed, and it is impossible to evaluate the asset, says Raiffeisenbank analyst Andrey Polishchuk. But Alliance oil has the lowest EBITDA margin in the industry, most likely due to the skew of the business towards refining, he argues. If Alliance oil is bought by a company that has enough of its own oil, profitability may immediately increase, the analyst concludes. NNK's production assets in Timan-Pechora may be of interest to LUKOIL, and the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery to Rosneft, which has the Komsomolsk Oil Refinery in the region, he argues.
The only one Russian company, which is now buying assets for Russian market, - Rosneft, but it seems to be already “complete” and needs to integrate the assets it has already purchased, says Sberbank CIB senior analyst Valery Nesterov. European investors are not enthusiastic about Russian oil assets: sanctions are in place, and the risk of aggravation of relations with Ukraine remains. Theoretically, Asian investors, in particular Indian companies that have already taken on the risks of investing in Russia, can buy a stake in NOC, the analyst says. Selling a stake in a separate NOC asset will be more difficult: the company does not yet have any high-profile promising projects, Nesterov concludes.
Two federal publications at once gave mutually exclusive information about the sale of Independent Oil and Gas Company JSC.
As Vedomosti writes, JSC NNK will be sold entirely. Moreover, offers to purchase it have already been sent to several major market players - Tatneftgaz, Rosneft and Belarusian entrepreneurs Alexey and Yuri Khotin. Foreign investors may also be interested in the company. There has been no official comment from potential buyers yet.
Experts find it difficult to evaluate the deal for the sale of NOC. Presumably, the company's price for at the moment could be about $4 billion. The matter is complicated by the decline in oil prices since 2014 and the unprofitability of NOC’s only refining asset, the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery, which ended 2015 with a loss of 7.4 billion rubles.
In addition, NOC's main assets were acquired with borrowed funds and are, for the most part, projects at the development stage. Thus, in 2013, NOC acquired the Payakhskoye fields in Taimyr with reserves of 11 million tons of oil and condensate, but never began their development. The situation is better in the Saratov region, where NNK exploits gas fields.
Let us recall, as BV previously wrote, at the beginning of 2016 the company in the Trans-Volga region Novo-Koptevskoye gas field with reserves of about 420 million cubic meters, and at the end of the year it was put into operation. In the Saratov region, there is a subsidiary of the company - NNK-Saratovneftegazdobycha LLC, which owns licenses for hydrocarbon production in 5 regions. Within the areas operated by the company, 4 fields have been discovered.
According to analysts, the sale of NOC would be a logical move - collecting small assets in order to sell them to a large player is a common global practice. Among possible buyers of NNK, experts also name Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz. Among the reasons for the sale of the company may be its high debts - NOC may simply not have enough funds to develop its investment projects.
At the same time, the owner of NNK himself, the former head of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov, categorically denied information about the sale of his company. In a conversation with RBC, he officially stated that he does not intend to offer it to anyone.
Help "BV". JSC NNK was created by Eduard Khudainatov from scratch in 2013, when he had already left the post of president of Rosneft. In 2014, the company acquired its key asset Alliance Oil from the family of entrepreneur Musa Bazhaev and from that moment began to actively acquire oil production licenses. But the fall in oil prices in 2014 significantly upset her plans. In 2015, the company's revenue was $2.2 billion and its net loss was $153 million. For 9 months of 2016, NNK received $1.5 billion in revenue and a profit of $116.4 million. In total, NOC currently owns 53 licenses for the use of subsoil areas in 8 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as in Kazakhstan.
There are several contenders for the asset, among them foreign investors, Rosneft, Tatneftegaz and the structures of Alexey and Yuri Khotin.
The independent oil and gas company (NOC) of Eduard Khudainatov is put up for sale, the company’s counterparty, a federal official, as well as two people close to potential buyers. A representative of NOC did not answer Vedomosti’s questions. A person close to the company claims that the information about the sale is not true - “there is no active search for buyers.”
Tatneftegaz (last year asked to transfer Bashneft to its management for 10 years), Rosneft, as well as Alexey and Yuri Khotin, received offers to buy the company and showed interest in the asset, two Vedomosti interlocutors say. The deal may also be of interest to foreign investors, adds another. It was impossible to contact representatives of Tatneftegaz on Sunday, a representative of Rosneft refused to comment, and a representative of the Khotins did not answer questions from Vedomosti.
The head structure of NOC is Aliance Oil of Eduard Khudainatov. In 2015, its revenue amounted to $2.2 billion, EBITDA - $318.3 million, net loss - $153 million. For the nine months of 2016, revenue amounted to $1.57 billion, EBITDA - $255.1 million, and net profit - $116 .4 million. At the end of September, the ratio of net debt to EBITDA was 5.6 compared to 5.2 at the beginning of 2016. The company spent $170.5 million on debt servicing in 2015, and $122 in the nine months of 2016 million, part of the interest payments was capitalized, the Aliance Oil report notes.
Aliance Oil used to belong to Musa Bazhaev. But in 2014, he and Khudainatov merged their assets. At that time, analysts estimated the assets of the joint venture at $4 billion, sources close to the deal - at $6-7 billion. Bazhaev had 60%, but in September 2014 he left the business.
Vedomosti's interlocutors do not say how much NOC might cost. NOC could now be worth about $4 billion, estimates Sergei Vakhrameev, manager of GL Asset Management. Since 2014, oil prices have decreased significantly, and the only refining asset of NOC, the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery, has been unprofitable since 2012, the expert points out. In 2015, the company received 7.4 billion rubles. loss.\
It is very difficult to evaluate NNK, since the company’s main assets were purchased with borrowed funds, most of them are projects at an early stage of development, notes Vitaly Kryukov, director of Small Letters. For example, in 2013, the company bought the Payakhsky fields in Taimyr with reserves of 11 million tons of oil and condensate (in the summer of 2016 it became known that NOC was unable to attract 100 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund to finance this project). In 2014, NOC bought the Saratov fields in the Volga region and invested more than 2 billion rubles in them. and in December 2016 put two fields into operation (production began - 1 million cubic meters of gas per day), Interfax wrote. It is possible to talk about some kind of cost only after the projects reach the planned capacity and after the company sorts out its debts, Kryukov said.
Vedomosti’s interlocutors also do not know the reasons for searching for buyers.
“Initially it was clear that NOC would be sold at some point. This is a global practice - to collect small assets, optimize them and sell them to a large player,” says Raiffeisenbank analyst Andrey Polishchuk. The company would be especially interesting to Rosneft, Lukoil or Surgutneftegaz, he believes. Now it is quite possible to negotiate a good price with buyers; Rosneft, as the Bashneft deal showed, is ready to pay, admits Polishchuk.
If the deal fails, then NOC will have to develop the assets independently and increase production levels, the expert believes.
Perhaps the company was prompted to search for an investor by high debts. Taking into account the difficult financial situation of NOC, it may well have not had enough funds to finance investment projects and it had to look for money, Kryukov argues. On the other hand, there are examples of companies in much more difficult situations. financial situation and surviving on their own, recalls Kryukov. As an example, he cites Igor Zyuzin and Mechel.
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