A COURT in Moscow declared Yukos bankrupt yesterday, ending a two-year battle by the company’s management and shareholders to keep the oil company solvent under the weight of tax claims totalling $28 billion (£15 billion).

The court ordered the liquidation of the company’s assets, a move that will set off a scramble for some highly valued industrial property, including five refineries, two oil production companies and valuable gas assets in Siberia.

Judge Pavel Markov appointed as receiver Eduard Rebgun, previously the court-appointed administrator, whose valuation of the Yukos assets at $17 billion, compared with claims of $18 billion, precipitated its demise. The valuation and bankruptcy proceedings were declared a farce by Tim Osborne, a spokesman for Menatep, the principal shareholder of Yukos, which opposed the bankruptcy. “It will be interesting to see how the assets are sold,” he said.

These include a fifth share in Yuganskneftegaz, which alone would cover the debts of the company, Mr Osborne said, pointing to an independent valuation of Yukos that set a figure in excess of $30 billion. Yugansk was confiscated by the tax authorities and eventually sold to Rosneft, becoming the largest asset of the state oil company, which was floated last month at a value of $80 billion.

The liquidation will extinguish the company acquired by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 1995.

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