The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian oil company Lukoil Valery Graipher said that the company is considering to buy 10 percent of its shares from its strategic partner – the U.S. ConocoPhillips, if the stake offered for sale. That said newspaper Kommersant stating that ConocoPhillips currently owns 20.6 percent stake in Lukoil. Given the market capitalization of Lukoil, at the moment it 10% of the company’s shares will cost about $ 5 billion, analysts say, indicating that in future this figure may be altered depending on oil prices. Official information about a possible sale of Lukoil shares of ConocoPhillips currently not available. It is believed that this issue can be discussed at the meeting of the Board of Directors of LUKOIL next week. Last fall also had information that the U.S. company intends to sell shares to Lukoil because of the need to cover their own debts, but then rumors were denied by both companies. Nomura Bank analysts suggest that any transaction for the sale of Lukoil shares of ConocoPhillips may be made in several installments over 3 years and is very likely that those shares in the future be used in procedures for mergers and acquisitions. There is no official information about the financial results for 2009, Lukoil recently president of the company and a major owner Cream Alekperov predicted that Lukoil profit for last year will be about $ 7 billion.
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