OREANDA-NEWS. A little-known Russian company, Monte Valle, bought the fourth lot of bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos' assets at an auction Tuesday for 3,563 billion rubles.

The Yukos power assets that made up the fourth lot were offered at a starting price of 2,639 billion rubles with an increment of 26,39 million rubles. A deposit of 527,8 million rubles was required.

The lot included Yukos’ 100% stake in Electric Power Service Company (Energy Service Company), 100% in Eskom EnergoTrade, 3,18% in Territorial Generating Company–4 (TGC-4), 25,15% in Tambov Trunk Grid Company, 25,15% in Tambov Electric Power Sales Company (Tambov Energy Company), 25,15% in Tambovenergo, 25% in Belgorod Trunk Grid Company, 25% in Belgorod Power Sales Company (Belgorod Energy Sales Company), 25,73% in Belgorodenergo and 25% in Corporate Service Systems.

A total of four companies took part in the auction. The other participants were little-known Russian companies Financial Agency, Versar, and Neft Aktiv, which is reportedly affiliated with Russian state-controlled oil major Rosneft.

Yukos has been crippled by multibillion-dollar back tax claims filed by Russian tax authorities since early 2004. Last year the Moscow Arbitration Court declared Yukos bankrupt. Yukos’ assets were divided into 14 lots and two of them have been sold for a total of 349,4 billion rubles, while the third auction was cancelled.