A company backed by Bank Menatep bought 78 percent of Yukos, Russia's second largest oil firm, in two combined auctions Friday with a total bid of $309.1 million.


The purchase means that controlling interests in the country's second and fourth largest oil companies -- each with reserves equivalent to those of U.S. oil giant Exxon -- have fallen into the hands of two relatively new Russian banks in the last two days.


Uneximbank bought 51 percent of Sidanko on Thursday in a loans-for-shares auction, a new phase of the government's three-year-old privatization program.The same bank also purchased a 38 percent stake in Norilsk Nickel, by far Russia's largest producer of nickel, in another loans-for-shares auction last month.


The purchase of Yukos was carried out by AOZT Laguna, a Moscow region-registered company whose primary backer is Menatep, the bank that organized the auction.


After the auction, Alfred Kokh, the acting chairman of the State Property Committee which controls privatization, the first tender, a cash auction of 33 percent. The minimum bid price was $150 million. The tender winner takes on a further obligation to invest $200 million in Yukos.


Laguna was later announced as the winner of the second auction, under the loans-for-shares scheme, of a larger, 45 percent stake in Yukos. Its bid was $159 million, against a minimum bid price of $150 million.


Laguna itself has no banking license and therefore cannot provide extend credits. (Story, Page 10.)


There is some question over how much these prices were real bargains, but just the opportunity each sale represents is huge in its own right. It is not every day, as was the case with Yukos, that 78 percent of an oil company with such massive reserves comes on the market.


These are major boosts for two of the fastest rising stars in the Russian banking firmament. Uneximbank was only formed in 1993 while Menatep dates back to 1990.


The question analysts raise is whether the move signifies the rise of a new Russian alliance between the banking sector and the raw materials industry with banks holding big, stable stakes in industry, and managing them for the long term as in Germany.


If so, it would be an exception to the rule in the world energy business. Stephen O'Sullivan, an analyst of the oil and gas sector at MC Securities in London, said in a telephone interview that oil companies in the private sector do not tend to be dominated by banks.


The only rival bids for Yukos were from another investment company called AOZT Reagent. It offered the base price of $150 million in the investment tender and $150.1 million in the loans-for-shares auction. Bidders had to participate in both auctions.


Laguna had financial guarantees from Bank Menatep, Stolichny Bank, and Tokobank. The same three banks also backed the Reagent bid.


The victories of Menatep and Uneximbank are the latest in a string of auctions being won by banks that organized the transactions, drawing complaints from other banks.


It is as yet too early to say whether the banks will hold on to their stakes.


The government retains the right to buy back the shares until the beginning of September next year -- after which date they can be sold by the auction winner -- though there is no provision in the 1996 budget for the government to do so.


It is also quite possible the banks just want to make money as intermediaries.