Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich has agreed to sell Russian oil company Sibneft for £7.36bn.

Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas producer, will purchase 72.7% of Sibneft, taking its stake in the company to more than 75%.

An agreement was signed between Gazprom and Sibneft's owner, Millhouse Capital, a holding company controlled by Abramovich, 38.

The purchase by Gazprom, which has been under state control since June, is the biggest in Russian corporate history.

It significantly boosts Gazprom's stature in the oil sector and President Vladimir Putin's efforts to recapture Kremlin influence in the lucrative energy industry.

Gazprom, which already owns 3% of Sibneft, Russia's fifth largest oil company, has long been groomed as a state energy giant to rival Saudi Arabia's Aramco.

Western banks were reported to be ready to offer a £6.79bn loan to fund the deal - the largest such loan in Russia's post-Soviet history.

Gazprom shares gained 1% as Russia's benchmark stock exchange index broke through the 1,000 point mark for the first time in its 10-year history.


He still looks like Harry Enfield though:


http://newsfeed.tcm.ie/images/people/harryenfield.jpg

I HATES CHELSKI!!!!!!!!!! ....:sad:

Yesh, me too :mad:

Alls not quite what it seems with that sale though.

Long and short - Scottish company managed to get oil extraction rights for oil in Russia. Scottish company & Roman go into 50/50 venture and set up business. During this period, a number of new shares are issued, which the owners of the Scottish company are apparent (a) unaware of, (b) not offered.

Currently legal action being carried out to determine whats what! Will try and find a link later on today.

Roman Abramovich
Born: October 24, 1966
Owns: Sibneft Oil Company, Chelsea Football Club
Forbes’ Top Fifty Rank: 49 (2003)

The youngest and the most secretive of Russia’s oligarch clan, Abramovich was orphaned at a very young age and brought up by his uncle. Abramovich never graduated from college and owes his success, instead, to his timely meeting with Boris Berezovsky, another Russian oligarch, and securing friendly relations with then-president Yeltsin’s family. The duo amassed a fortune, among other things, by privatizing the oil giant Sibneft during the murky post-perestroika times; Abramovich also bought considerable stock in Russia’s biggest air carrier, Aeroflot, and Russian Aluminum, the Russian aluminum monopoly. He was the first of Russian business moguls to conglomerate all of his assets into a single company registered abroad (Millhouse Capital). Abramovich also reportedly owns a major sausage producer, while his other assets include real estate in London and Moscow.

MORE (http://www.mosnews.com/mn-files/abramovich.shtml)

A sausage producer? :shock:

LOL :unibrow:

I reckon he's done dodgy stuff too :ninja: