A consortium led by US billionaire Todd Boehly, backed by Emirati investors International Holding Company and Al Hail Holding, the Syrian-Qatari Al-Khayat brothers and the US International Development Finance Corp, is preparing to acquire Lukoil’s international assets and expects a deal within weeks, according to four people close to the process cited by Reuters. Under the proposed cashless swap, a bank acting for the consortium has bought billions of dollars of frozen Lukoil securities from around 10 US and British investment funds at 30 cents on the dollar, and those shares would be exchanged for the overseas assets rather than transferred straight to Lukoil, with the shares instead placed in escrow.
The sale has run for more than a year since US sanctions on Lukoil in October 2025, drew bids from more than a dozen companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and lost bidder Carlyle last month. The US Treasury rejected an offer involving Xtellus Partners last December on the basis that Lukoil should not receive a windfall in shares or cash, and Reuters reported in February that Washington had slowed the sale partly to pressure Russia in talks on ending the war in Ukraine; two people cited by Reuters said the portfolio’s value has since deteriorated as some assets stopped operating.