Both the British oil giant and the oligarch-owned AAR want to sell their 50% stakes in Russian oil giant TNK- BP.
On the same day that BP's results were announced, a judge in London granted a request by Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), the vehicle through which Russian partners hold their stake in TNK-BP, that the Rosneft deal be put on ice until at least February 25th.
This article is by Lisa Colantuono, co-partner of AAR Partners, an agency search consultancy.
AAR, with its short-term outlook and expectation of fast-growing returns, was dismayed to see a dynamic company turning into a Big Oil bureaucracy.
John Kariuki is the founder and CEO of AAR Credit Services, a Kenyan-based micro-finance company.
Russian and British executives in this bad marriage have been in turmoil since 2011, with AAR accusing BP of treating TNK-BP merely as a Russian subsidiary to boost its reserves, and not letting the company expand abroad in areas where it might itself compete with BP.
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But this sort of thing always precedes big energy deals in Russia, and the way the AAR Group of Russian shareholders in TNK-BP sees it, everything is under control.
Last year, AAR, which is owned by four Russian-born billionaires led by tycoon Mikhail Fridman, was unhappy with BP's attempt to form an exploration alliance with Rosneft and secured a High Court injunction blocking the plan.
Meanwhile, Rosneft moved to purchase the other half of TNK-BP, agreeing to buy it from AAR, a group of four Russian billionaires.
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TNK-BP is jointly owned by Alfa Access Renova (AAR) and BP, after a deal struck in 2003.
But his request was contradicted by Viktor Vekselberg, a TNK-BP director and one of the three tycoons who own AAR.
The AAR shareholders are satisfied that their concerns have been met over independence at TNK-BP, international expansion plans, and the chief executive position.
The writing has been on the wall for TNK-BP since this time last year, when one of the AAR billionaires quit his role as CEO of the venture and declared that the relationship with BP had run its course.
The AAR consortium blocked the deal citing that the proposed deal would negate the competitive advantage that TNK-BP has in Russia.
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Fridman is also a member of the super wealthy AAR consortium, a private equity firm that represents the four oligarchs that own half of TNK-BP.
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Rosneft is buying TNK- BP, which is a vertically integrated oil company co-owned by British oil firm BP and a group of Russian billionaires known as AAR.
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