By Stephen Bierman
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sibir Energy Plc, a London-based oil company, suspended Chief Executive Officer Henry Cameron pending a probe into the real estate dealings of Russian shareholder Chalva Tchigirinski that will take “months” to complete.
Cameron will continue to help the company “recover all monies owed by any Tchigirinski interest,” Sibir said in a statement today. Cameron’s deputy, Stuard Detmer, was named acting CEO.
Sibir was suspended from London trading on Feb. 19 after the company said businesses related to Tchigirinski owed the Siberian oil producer $210 million more than indicated in previous statements. A week earlier, Sibir said that the former billionaire owed $307.4 million and agreed to sell an airplane and property in Russia, France and Britain to pay it by October.
“We don’t know yet how long the investigation is going to take,” Detmer said by mobile phone today. “We expect to get some pretty quick answers, in a matter of weeks, but the final report will probably take months.”
Tchigirinski, who once had a $2.5 billion fortune, was one of 52 Russians dropped from Finans magazine’s annual list of billionaires this year. The 59-year-old businessmen halted work last November on the Russia Tower, a planned skyscraper in Moscow’s new financial district designed by architect Norman Foster to be Europe’s tallest building when completed.
Moscow Government, Shell
“The board is satisfied” that the debt and related costs “will be recovered by Sibir in due course even if the properties are sold on a heavily discounted basis,” Sibir said Feb. 11.
Tchigirinski couldn’t be reached immediately for comment when Bloomberg called his mobile phone, and attempts to reach Cameron through Sibir’s London office were unsuccessful.
Tchigirinski and his partner Igor Kesaev control 47 percent of Sibir through a holding company called Bennfield, and Moscow’s city government owns about 18 percent. Institutions and individuals own the rest, according to Sibir’s Web site.
Kesaev supported the board’s decision to suspend Cameron and investigate the property transactions, said Robert May, spokesman for Kesaev’s Mercury Group holding company.
Sibir pumped 80,000 barrels of crude a day last month, mainly from its half of a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Group Plc.
The Financial Times reported in October that Shell was seeking a “large” stake in Sibir, citing unidentified Shell executives. Tchigirinski said then that he wanted to expand cooperation with Shell, though he ruled out selling any part of his stake.
The investigation won’t include the acquisition of stakes in two companies controlled by Tchigirinski and Kesaev, Avtocard and Korimos, that the board approved in December, Detmer said today.
Asked if the probe would affect Sibir’s discussions with potential partners, Detmer said: “This certainly won’t prevent people from talking.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net
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