| Fifth auction for bankrupt Yukos assets to be held April 18
MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - The fifth auction for assets of the now bankrupt oil company Yukos will be held April 18, Russia's federal property fund said Tuesday. Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over the company's tax arrears The initial lot price is 992.31 million rubles (about $38.5 million), with a bid increment of 9.92 million rubles (about $384,612). Prospective bidders must deposit 198.46 million rubles (about $7.7 million). The first auction held March 27 to sell Yukos's 9.44% stake in state-run oil producer Rosneft was won by Rosneft's subsidiary RN-Razvitiye, which offered 197.84 billion rubles for the lot (about $7.6 billion), compared with the lot's initial price of slightly over 195.5 billion rubles (about $7.5 billion).
Bilfinger Berger bids for $1.8 billion Qatar projects
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Bilfinger Berger AG, Germany's second-largest builder, has submitted bids for $1.8 billion in Qatari construction contracts, including a highway project in the north of the country.
The winning bidders for the $1 billion North Road and the $800 million North Sewage Treatment project is expected to be announced within four to eight weeks, Mahmoud El Khafif, Mannheim, Germany-based Bilfinger Berger's regional manager, said in an interview yesterday.
The two contracts, to be awarded by Qatar's Public Works Authority, is part of a five-year, $6.9 billion infrastructure spending plan. Companies interested in either project will have to cope with construction material inflation, with price increases of between 10 and 20 per cent in Qatar in the last year, El Khafif said.
Cetes drop in auction
Mexico City, April 17th.- In Tuesday's government securities number 16 of this year, Mexico's 28-day Treasury Certificates, or Cetes, ended flat at 7.00 percent, according to information provided by the Central Bank (Banxico). Banxico said the 91-day Cetes shed 0.01 percentage points to finish at 7.14 percent, compared to last week's final quote at 7.15 percent. Meanwhile, the banking authority said the 175-day government closed at 7.26 percent, reflecting a decline of 0.02 percentage points versus the previous rate of 7.28 percent. (Information provided by Finsat/Esteban Rojas H./GCE) .
Role of US buyout firms in BCE bidding raises concern
MONTREAL -- CEO Michael Sabia may have opened up telecom giant BCE Inc. to a lengthy bidding war between Canada's biggest pension funds, but criticism of the potential role of powerful U.S. private equity funds is mounting. One of the potential bidding groups has the world's biggest buyout fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as a minority partner and the other Providence Equity Partners Inc., another huge U.S. buyout firm in the same role. In the event BCE is taken private, Canadian pension funds would be passive partners seeking to bolster returns, while rapid changes at BCE would be dictated by these highly experienced and aggressive U.S. buyout firms that would aim to cash out in two or three years, several investors said Wednesday. .
Flood-damaged cars a problem for shoppers
Nobody knows how many cars were damaged this week by floodwaters that rose high enough to soak engines, wiring, computers and transmissions. But consumer advocates say it's a good bet that some of those cars will be for sale, meaning car shoppers need to be on the lookout for signs that the vehicle they're thinking of buying was under water. It's not an easy task, said Terry Grosselfinger, the director of consumer protection in Rockland County. That's because although flood-damaged cars often "dry out" and get back on the road, they usually sustain some long-term damage. "It's not just a problem for a week," he said. "These cars will come on the market for the next six months or a year," he said. And the sellers often replace carpeting, paint and mechanical parts that showed clear signs of water damage, he said.
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