Gunvor was forced to disclose the name of the minority shareholder which it had been hiding for many years to, thanks to the documents published by Wikileaks. According to one of them, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John Byerly suggested that the share of oil trader belongs to the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"Putin does not own and has never had anything in Gunvor, the representative of the company said. The documents posted on Wikileaks, are a repetition of old speculation and unconfirmed rumors as they use words "allegedly", “according to market rumors”, "perhaps", etc..

Gunvor did not disclose the third co-owner for a long time. It was known that Gennady Timchenko and Swedish businessman Tornqvist Torbrern equally owned approximately 90% of the trader. The company representative confirmed that it is the same now. A few years ago, Tornqvist told FT that the third co-owner was a private investor who had received a minority stake in 2005 in exchange for financial support. Later, in 2008, Timchenko himself admitted in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, that the minority shareholder is a businessman from St. Petersburg.

At the moment Timchenko did not say the truth, a spokesman of Gunvor said. He did not say how and when a change of ownership of the minority stake had happened. The package was sold out, the acquaintance of Timchenko knows. About 10% in Gunvor can cost $ 500-700 million, according to analyst from the Bank of Moscow, Denis Borisov. However, the amount may be very different, because the company did not disclose its financial performance. It is only known that its revenues from oil sales in 2009 totaled $ 53 billion (18.5% less than in 2008).

It is not clear yet which manager of the company could be its co-owner: Gunvor did not disclose the board members nether. According to press releases, it is known about the company appointments that Matt Brock has recently been appointed the head of coal trading, Stefan Kodron became the head of gas trading, and Peymon Eliabadi has been appointed the head of global energy.

Source: Vedomosti on 06/12/2010