Mysterious company Monte-Valle, founded by unnamed U.S. citizen has won the fourth auction for sale of property of bankrupt Yukos Oil Company.

The auction held on Tuesday, April 17, sold stakes in Russian energy companies previously owned by Yukos. Monte-Valle offered 3.563 billion rubles (about $138 million) for the lot.

Yukos, once Russia’s largest private oil company, was declared bankrupt on Aug. 1, 2006, following three years of litigation with tax authorities over the company’s tax arrears.

The state has already sold Yukos’ gas assets to consortium of Italian energy companies Eni and Enel and a 9.4 percent stake in state-controlled Rosneft Oil Company to Rosneft itself.

The third auction, including Yukos’s research and development assets, was called off due to a lack of bids. The fourth round of Yukos auction saw four firms bidding for energy assets in Tambov and Belgorod regions in Central Russia.

Initial price of the lot was 2.64 billion rubles (about $102.2 million), with the bid increment of 26.39 million rubles (about $1.02 million).

Monte Valle and another company, called Financial Agency, were the main bidders at the auction. Neft-Aktiv, a structure of Rosneft, offered five bid increments while Versar offered none.

Several hours after the auction Prime-Tass news agency reported that Monte-Valle LLC was registered in August 2003. Its general director is Steven Patrick Lynch, while the sole founder is an unnamed U.S. citizen.

Popularity: 3% [?]