Gunvor, the group that wants to buy Lukoil's assets, has started talks with “regulatory authorities” / Romania's Competition Council says it has received “nothing official”
Gunvor Group, which has long-standing ties to Russia's energy industry, has begun talks with regulators about buying Lukoil's overseas assets, Bloomberg News reported, according to Reuters. As for the assets in Romania, it is not clear if any authority is involved in these discussions. The representatives of the Competition Council responded, to HotNews.ro's request, that the sale of Lukoil assets comes to their attention only after an agreement is concluded between the parties. Until this moment, the Competition Council has not received any notification, “nothing official” in relation to Lukoil's assets in Romania.
The United States imposed, on October 29, sanctions against the Russian giants Rosneft, Lukoil and numerous of their subsidiaries. Although Lukoil also owns important assets in Romania, the Government has not had, until today, an official reaction. HotNews also requested a point of view on the Gunvor Group announcement, but by the time the article was published we had not received a response.
The President of the Competition Council declared, the other day, that if the transaction is greater than 2 million euros, the notifications are submitted to the Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments (CEISD), which is subordinate to the Government.
So far, the only institutional position from the Romanian authorities was sent by the Ministry of Energy, a week after the US announced the sanctions on the Lukoil group. The Ministry of Energy said it “has taken note of the sanctions announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an agency within the Department of the Treasury of the United States of America”.
Gunvor boss claims the assets will not be sold back to Lukoil
Commodity trader Gunvor Group is prepared to address any concerns about Russia's continued influence over assets it buys from Russia's Lukoil LKOH.MM, CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist told Bloomberg News, Reuters reported.
Tornqvist ruled out the scenario that the assets would be resold to Lukoil if US sanctions were lifted. On the other hand, he hinted that some of the assets could be sold again.
Lukoil has been trying to sell the refinery in Romania for several years
In Romania, Lukoil's most important assets are the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery and the Lukoil Romania network, with approximately 320 distribution stations, both of which are owned by Litasco, based in Switzerland.
The Petrotel Ploiesti refinery has been for sale for almost ten years, but the investors were not interested. One of the causes is the fact that the refinery has outdated facilities and requires very large investments, an oil specialist explained to HotNews.
The company that operates the refinery, Petrotel – Lukoil SA, has not yet submitted its financial statements for 2024, the delay being almost five months.
Another company owned by Lukoil, Lukoil Romania SRL, which operates the gas station network, submitted its tax returns, showing a loss of 145 million lei in 2024.
Even Litasco SA Geneva Sucursala Bucharest, a company dealing with the wholesale trade of fuels, have not yet submitted their financial statements for 2024, the delay being almost five months. According to the data of the Ministry of Finance, the latest financial information is from 2023.
The legal deadline for submitting accounting balance sheets is May 31. The non-submission of the balance sheet by a large taxpayer may attract tax checks from ANAF, being considered a risky company.
Who is Gunvor?
Gunvor Group Ltd, which would buy Lukoil's assets abroad, is a commodity trading company in the field of energy (oil, gas, LNG). It is registered in Cyprus and has its main office in Geneva, Switzerland. The company was founded in 2000 by Gennady Timchenko, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
Timchenko founded the company with Torbjörn Törnqvist, an oil magnate from Sweden.
In March 2014, Timchenko sold all holdings to Törnqvist, in the context of US sanctions. Timchenko was sanctioned by the US following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
According to a 2022 report, Törnqvist owned 85.7% of the shares, with the rest held by employees.
