Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Forbes business publication on the prospects for the sale of LUKOIL's foreign assets to the American investment company Carlyle.
Alexey Gromov considers Carlyle's chances of getting approval from the American regulator to be "quite real."
"Obviously, this company would not have agreed to conclude a deal with Lukoil if its lawyers had not discussed with the relevant services in the United States the possibility of some kind of resistance from the American regulator," he argues.
"A company does not have the best reputation if it talks not about negotiations, but about concluding a deal, which then breaks down because the buyer did not do the rough work well enough," the expert says.
Kazakh assets of Lukoil were not included in the perimeter of the deal with Carlyle, according to Gromov, because Kazakhstan has the primary right to buy out shares.
"The Russian company participates in Kazakhstani projects based on the principles of production sharing agreements. If investors withdraw from such projects, Kazakhstan gets such a right, it has already stated that it wants to use it," the analyst explains.
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