LUKoil, Russia's largest privatized oil company, will hold cash auctions for tiny stakes in 10 divisions early next month, a company representative announced Thursday.


Officials at investment company NIKoil, which LUKoil has appointed its exclusive representative in both domestic and international securities markets, said a 0.076-percent stake in LUKoil Holding and stakes of between 0.029 and 0.63 in nine divisions will be auctioned off Nov. 10. The auctions had previously been scheduled for October.


Anatoly Darakov, stock operations manager at NIKoil, said bids for the closed auction will be accepted until Nov. 8. He said investors, both Russian and foreign, have already expressed interest in the sell-off. "We've received 30 calls so far today," Darakov said.


Shares in each of the LUKoil divisions offered at the auction are divided into lots, with minimum initial per-share prices higher for larger lots. Each lot will go to the highest bidder.


Although the stakes are tiny, they are among the most sought-after shares on Russia's burgeoning stock market, where the value of the stock offered at the auction comes to millions of dollars.


At the current market price of LUKoil-Holding stock -- the equivalent of about $28 -- the value of the 77,410 shares offered at the auction would be about $2.2 million. The 55,769 shares of Lukoil-Kogalymneftegaz, which Russian brokers currently quote at about $47, would be worth about $2.6 million.


The proceeds from the sale will be used to cover LUKoil's privatization expenses and to finance some of the company's small-scale projects, according to Darakov.