Eurasia Drilling minority shareholders led by UCP file lawsuit over buyback price
A group of minority shareholders of Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC), led by United Capital Partners (UCP), a fund of Ilya Shcherbovich, has filed a lawsuit against the oil services company in the Cayman Islands court, reported Kommersant.
The Russian daily cited sources familiar with the situation noting that on 3 February, UCP and several other investment funds had filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the Cayman Islands, requesting to review the price of the share buyback.
The minority shareholders are not satisfied with the price at which the management of EDC acquired the entire free-float of the company at the end of last year. The minority shareholders were offered USD 11.75 per GDR, the item reported. The price that is unsatisfactory to UCP is significantly less than a price offered in the failed deal with oil services group Schlumberger, which was USD 22 per GDR.
Kommersant has estimated that if the minority shareholders win the court suit, the additional costs of EDC could amount to about USD 335m.
UCP and EDC declined to comment, said the report.
UCP owns a 1.8% stake in EDC. The main shareholders in EDC are General Director Alexander Djaparidze (30.2%), Alexander Putilov (22.4%), while about 3% is owned by Lukoil’s head Vagit Alekperov.
In 2014, EDC posted USD 3bn revenue and a USD 421m net profit, Kommersant reported.
Kommersant