{"id":127119,"date":"2024-09-03T20:14:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/03\/sanctioned-oligarchs-take-stake-in-largest-uk-oil-firm\/"},"modified":"2024-09-03T20:14:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:14:05","slug":"sanctioned-oligarchs-take-stake-in-largest-uk-oil-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/03\/sanctioned-oligarchs-take-stake-in-largest-uk-oil-firm\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioned oligarchs take stake in largest UK oil firm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sanctioned<\/div>


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Two sanctioned Russian oligarchs have become part-owners of the UK’s largest oil producer after it completed a deal to buy a German firm.<\/p>\n

LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, now owns nearly 15% of Harbour Energy.<\/p>\n

LetterOne itself is not sanctioned, and the two Russians have no contact with the firm and don’t receive any share of its profits. <\/p>\n

Harbour Energy is the largest oil and gas producer in UK waters. It has bought most of the oil and gas production assets of a Germany-based firm, Wintershall DEA, from the chemicals giant BASF.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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LetterOne was a part-owner of Wintershall, and shares have been exchanged for shares in Harbour Energy.<\/p>\n

Some of Wintershall’s Russia-linked assets, including a joint venture with Gazprom, are not part of the deal and remain with BASF. <\/p>\n

Under the terms of the deal, LetterOne will have no voting rights in Harbour Energy, but it will receive a share of Harbour’s profits paid as dividends. <\/p>\n

LetterOne’s shares could potentially convert into voting shares if the two Russians cease to be sanctioned.<\/p>\n

LetterOne owns a diverse range of assets around the world, worth $18bn (\u00a313.8bn), including the health food retailer Holland and Barrett. <\/p>\n

Fridman and Aven were sanctioned in March 2022 shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Together they own just under 50% of the group. Most of the rest is owned by another Russian, Andrei Kosogov, who is not sanctioned. <\/p>\n

The government forced LetterOne to sell a regional broadband provider, Upp, in 2022 over fears that it represented a “risk to national security”. <\/p>\n

LetterOne denied this and is appealing the decision.<\/p>\n

Louis Wilson, head of fossil fuel investigations at campaign group Global Witness, said: “The UK government and Harbour should have run a mile from this deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cA company part-owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs, which the Tories considered too much of a security risk to own a few thousand UK broadband connections, has been given a big chunk of the UK\u2019s biggest oil producer. <\/p>\n

“Oligarchs should have no place in the UK\u2019s energy industry\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

A LetterOne spokesperson said: “LetterOne is committed to making long-term investments in businesses that matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to be part of a bigger, stronger UK energy business that will bolster energy security, increase investment and create jobs while helping deliver the nation’s ambitious energy transition goals.”<\/p>\n

Harbour Energy declined to comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Two sanctioned Russian oligarchs have become part-owners of the UK’s largest oil producer after it completed a deal to buy a German firm. LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, now owns nearly 15% of Harbour Energy. LetterOne itself is not sanctioned, and the two Russians have no contact with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/2cbe\/live\/84abd980-6a1f-11ef-8c32-f3c2bc7494c6.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[5679,3493,1134,102736,41093,2341],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127121,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127119\/revisions\/127121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}