Court give go-ahead for oil firm flotation

The flotation of the Russian state oil company Rosneft on the London Stock Exchange will proceed today, despite claims it would amount to the “laundering” of illegally-acquired assets.

Yesterday, an interim injunction blocking the flotation pending further court hearings was refused by the British High Court.

Mr Justice Charles rejected a plea by oil company Yukos for permission to seek judicial review of decisions by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that the listing of Rosneft shares should be sanctioned.

Yukos had alleged the flotation would amount to money laundering under the Proceeds of Crime Act because 70% of the value of Rosneft’s shares resulted from the unlawful seizure and sale of the assets of Yukos by the Russian government.

The company contested legal advice given to the FSA and LSE that Yukos’s objections were “non-justiciable” – not open to legal challenge – in the English courts, because the courts had no power to interfere in the actions of a foreign state.

After the hearing, a Yukos representative said the case had been decided on a “technical point of law” and did not deal with the company’s central complaint that its assets had been stolen by the Russian Government.

Yukos would now consider whether to take the case to the Court of Appeal and would continue to pursue its claim against Russia through the European courts.