By America Hernandez, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Timothy Gardner
LONDON/PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Austrian businessman Bernd Bergmair, former majority owner of an adult entertainment group including website Pornhub, has approached the U.S. Treasury about buying international assets of sanctioned Russian oil major Lukoil, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Lukoil, Russia’s largest privately-owned oil producer, as part of efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
The sanctions have forced Lukoil to announce the sale of foreign assets, with multiple buyers approaching U.S. authorities for permission to talk to Lukoil, including oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
Through a lawyer, Bergmair declined to specify which assets he was interested in, whether he had already approached Lukoil, or whether he was part of an investment consortium.
“Obviously Lukoil International GmbH would be a great investment and anybody would be fortunate to have the privilege of owning those assets,” he told Reuters. “I don’t comment on potential investments as a matter of course.”
The sources declined to be identified by name due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Interest in Lukoil’s foreign assets has grown since the U.S. Treasury last month gave clearance to companies to begin talks with Lukoil. The Treasury has cleared discussions until December 13, and would need to approve any deals.
Lukoil International GmbH, based in Vienna, owns refineries in Europe, shares in oilfields in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq and Mexico, plus hundreds of retail fuel stations around the world. The assets are worth an estimated $22 billion, based on 2024 filings.
A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to comment when asked if Bergmair had spoken with the department.
Bergmair, who worked for Goldman Sachs in New York as an investment banker in the 1990s before turning to private investments, was the majority owner of MindGeek – a Luxembourg-based firm with websites including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn – until it was sold in 2023 for an undisclosed sum to a Canadian private equity firm.
In 2021 Britain’s ranking of the most wealthy in The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth to be at least £1.2 billion.
($1 = 0.7551 pounds)
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in London and America Hernandez in Paris, additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Alex Lawler, Simon Webb and Elaine Hardcastle)
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