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| RusAl Wins LUKoil Ruling |
United Company RusAl said Tuesday that it won a court ruling that obliges LUKoil to deliver oil coke in line with an outstanding contract.
The Moscow City Arbitration Court made its ruling after RusAl complained that LUKoil failed to supply 20,000 tons of the fuel in April, RusAl said. LUKoil spokesman Vladimir Semakov said the company was not immediately able to comment.
Bloomberg
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| Polyus Board Approves KazakhGold Buy |
Onexim Group, a major shareholder in Polyus Gold, said Tuesday that the miner's board approved the acquisition of a controlling stake in Kazakhstan's largest gold miner, KazakhGold, and that billionaire Suleiman Kerimov would bid for a stake in Polyus.
Onexim, owned by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, said Polyus' board voted unanimously for the Kazakh acquisition, of which 70 percent will be paid with shares and 30 percent by cash.
Prokhorov, also chairman of Polyus, said on Tuesday that Kerimov might buy a stake in the company. He will bid for the 35 percent held by billionaire Vladimir Potanin and would be a "comfortable partner," Prokhorov said.
The Polyus board also voted against a buyback of its shares, stating that they have recently risen by more than 40 percent.
On Monday, KazakhGold said it had received a possible cash and shares offer from Polyus to buy 50.1 percent of the company.
Reunters
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| Potanin, RusAl Battle Over Norilsk Buy |
Shares in Norilsk Nickel opened up Monday, only to close down 5.1 percent in a falling market following an announcement that its subsidiaries had bought an 8.7 percent stake in the company.
Shares were up as much as 5.2 percent on the MICEX at 11:00 a.m. as analysts said the acquisition strengthened the position of a major shareholder, billionaire Vladimir Potanin's Interros, and weakened that of the other major shareholder, United Company RusAl.
"We contend that the interests of minority shareholders are currently more aligned with those of Interros, which is seeking to negotiate a better deal with RusAl for itself and consequently other Norilsk Nickel shareholders, so we regard the news positively," Troika Dialog said in a morning comment.
"This would leave RusAl with weak negotiating positions in talks on the creation of a national mining champion in Russia," Troika added.
Norilsk said Sunday evening that three of its subsidiaries had bought around 8.7 percent of its shares, a move that RusAl called unlawful. Norilsk, in a statement, gave no reason.
RusAl hit out at Potanin and Norilsk CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, saying they were using loopholes in Russian legislation to maintain full control of the company.
The Moscow Times
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| $390M Polyus Offer To Get KazakhGold |
Polyus Gold has made its first major foreign expansion move, offering $390 million in cash and shares for a 50.1 percent stake in KazakhGold, the Kazakh company said Monday.
Shareholders in KazakhGold, Kazakhstan's largest metal producer, would receive $7.95 and 0.298 Polyus shares per share under the deal, KazakhGold said in a statement posted on the London Stock Exchange web site Monday.
Polyus, the country's largest producer of the precious metal, finished up 21.1 percent on the MICEX on Monday, at 823 rubles per share, on a day when the MICEX Index fell by 5.5 percent. KazakhGold, traded on the London Stock Exchange, was down 16.1 percent, to $10.07 per share, in late afternoon trading there.
Gold Lion Holdings Limited, which owns a 41.7 percent stake in KazakhGold, said in the statement that it was "supportive of the [offer] and … will irrevocably undertake to accept."
The deal has yet to be approved officially by the boards of the two companies.
The major Polyus shareholders — Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin, each with stakes of about 30 percent — were unavailable for comment Monday. Polyus Gold CEO Yevgeny Ivanov did not answer a request for an interview, and there was no answer at KazakhGold's London or Almaty offices Monday.
The deal will be discussed at a Polyus board meeting on Tuesday, a source close to the company said Monday.
The value of the potential offer was based on Polyus' price on the MICEX at Thursday's close of 570 rubles per share and represents a premium of 23 percent over the KazakhGold share price for that day, analysts said.
KazakhGold's first-half production fell 18 percent, to 66,863 ounces, the company said in a statement on Friday. But total revenues jumped 61 percent on the back of climbing metals prices, to $66.4 million.
Nonetheless, KazakhGold has seen its market capitalization fall by almost half over the past year.
The announcement of the pending deal drew positive reviews Monday.
"It is a good price offered for a quality asset in the right time," said Marat Gabitov, head of research at UniCredit Aton.
The Kazakh asset offers Polyus lower production costs, at about $262 per ounce, compared to $348 at Polyus. Gold was trading at $887.33 per ounce just before noon in London on Monday.
"The deal will also enable Polyus to increase its output quickly, as its main production facility projects aren't to be launched any earlier than 2010-2013," Gabitov said.
Production at the Natalka mine, Polyus' biggest asset, is slated to turn out 1,700,000 ounces of gold annually, but will only begin in 2013. The addition of KazakhGold could boost output by as much as 30 percent, Gabitov said.
Russian media reported last month that billionaire Suleiman Kerimov had offered Potanin $1.6 billion for his stake in Polyus. There were also reports that Prokhorov had reached an agreement with Potanin to acquire his share.
The Moscow Times
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| UC RUSAL tipped to be in talks on nuclear project |
The Rosatom state corporation plans to issue a decision in the spring of 2009 on the participation of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska's affiliates in the final stages of construction of the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant (Balakovo NPP), as well as building an energy and metallurgical complex in the Russian Far East, a top-echelon industry source told journalists. Talks are currently underway with UC RUSAL regarding these two projects, the source revealed. As part of the planned construction for the second phase of the Balakovo NPP, the state corporation and RUSAL have created a working group, which will, in particular, work out the issue with power supplies from the plant.
RBC-News
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| Polyus Eyes Control of Kazakhgold |
Polyus Gold said Friday that it had approached Kazakh gold miner Kazakhgold in connection with a possible offer for a controlling stake in the London-listed miner.
Polyus said there could be no certainty of a final offer, which would also require approval from British regulators.
Interfax also quoted a source close to Polyus' shareholders as saying the board of Polyus would discuss buying a 50.1 percent stake in Kazakhgold at a meeting Tuesday and that the acquisition might be for cash and Polyus shares.
Kazakhgold said in a statement that it had received an offer to sell 50.1 percent of its share capital for a mix of cash and shares, although it did not say who had made the offer.
"There can be no certainty that any partial offer for the issued share capital of the company will be forthcoming or as to the terms on which such an offer might be made," a Kazakhgold statement said.
Polyus stakeholder Onexim Group declined to comment on the specific acquisition while confirming the board meeting agenda.
"The issue of international expansion is on the agenda of the board meeting," said a spokesman for group, an investment vehicle of the second-largest shareholder, Mikhail Prokhorov. He declined to elaborate.
Polyus' shares on the MICEX exchange rose 18 percent Friday.
n Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is seeking to buy a 35 percent stake in Polyus from fellow billionaire Vladimir Potanin, Vedomosti reported Friday.
Kerimov's Nafta-Moskva investment company offered to buy the stake for about $1.6 billion, Vedomosti reported.
On Wednesday, Kommersant reported that Onexim, which already holds about 30 percent in Polyus, had offered to buy Potanin's 35 percent stake.
Reunters
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| Deripaska Will Appeal To Move London Suit |
Oleg Deripaska, the majority owner of United Company RusAl, will this week seek to have London's High Court dismiss a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by former associate Michael Cherney, a person close to Deripaska's Basic Element holding said Friday.
Cherney is claiming a stake of 13.2 percent in the world's largest aluminum producer, worth an estimated $4.35 billion.
Deripaska on Friday will appeal the court's decision in July to consider the case in Britain and argue that it be heard in Russia instead, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media ahead of the hearing.
Cherney's lawyers said in an e-mailed statement Sunday that they were confident that the appeal would be rejected.
"It is in the interests of Mr. Deripaska to solicit a truce as soon as possible because the initial sum of $4.35 billion may increase significantly as the dividends unpaid for the shares in question add up," a source close to Cherney said by telephone. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing lawyers' advice.
The London court said in July that Cherney made a "good arguable case" of the risks of a trial in Russia, including "assassination, arrest on trumped-up charges and lack of a fair trial."
Cherney, a controversial figure in the Russian aluminum industry in the 1990s who now lives in Israel and invests in high-tech and real estate, has accused Deripaska of seizing a stake being held in trust in their joint aluminum business.
Cherney said he helped Deripaska get his start in the just-privatized aluminum industry, giving him money and helping him get a job as general director at a smelter in Sayanogorsk, according to London court documents obtained by The Moscow Times. The plant later became the cornerstone of Deripaska's aluminum empire.
Cherney said he first met with Deripaska in late 1993 or early 1994, according to the court documents.
Deripaska has said Cherney had never been his business partner "in any normally accepted commercial meaning of the word" and that the two had became acquainted in May 1994.
Deripaska was the biggest private shareholder with 8.85 percent in the Sayanogorsk plant by Oct. 1, 1993, the source close to BasEl said.
The source said cooperation began between Trans World Group, or TWG, a metals trader co-owned by Cherney, and Alinvest, an investment vehicle controlled by Deripaska, in July 1994. By then, Alinvest had consolidated about 12 percent of the plant's shares, while Russky Capital, a TWG-controlled holding, had about 4 percent, the source said.
TWG and Deripaska cooperated in buying shares in the plant because Alinvest had a brokerage license and Deripaska needed TWG to buy shares to prevent their price from sharply rising, the source said.
By Nov. 15, 1994, when Deripaska was elected general director of the plant with 98 percent of shareholders' votes, his firms had consolidated up to 23 percent of the plant's shares, while TWG had a similar figure, the source said.
Cherney said he and Deripaska each owned 50 percent in Siberian Aluminum, or SibAl, until 1998, when they reduced their stakes to 40 percent apiece, according to the court documents. Two other people, Anton Malevsky and Sergei Popov, each acquired 10 percent stakes, Cherney said.
SibAl later merged with the aluminum assets of Sibneft to form Russian Aluminum, or RusAl. SibAl and Sibneft each took 50 percent stakes in RusAl. Cherney said he was entitled to 20 percent of RusAl after the deal.
In March 2007, RusAl merged with SUAL and Glencore's alumina assets to become the world largest aluminum producer. The share Cherney was claiming was reduced from 20 percent to 13.2 percent, which he says is worth $4.35 billion.
Cherney said in the court documents that the heart of the conflict between him and Deripaska lies in two agreements signed at London's Laneborough Hotel on March 10, 2001. In the first document, Deripaska agreed to pay Cherney $250 million up front for his shareholding in SibAl, while the second document obliged Deripaska to hold 20 percent of RusAl's shares in trust and sell them between 2005 and 2007 on Cherney's behalf, Cherney said.
Deripaska said the second document was to go to Malevsky, not Cherney, according to the court documents.
Deripaska has paid the $250 million. Malevsky died in a parachuting accident in South Africa in 2001.
The Moscow Times
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| Polymetal Elects New Board |
Polymetal said Thursday that its shareholders had elected a new board of directors after a change in ownership this summer, Interfax reported.
The company, Russia's largest silver miner, increased its board to nine members, from the previous seven, and boosted the number of independent directors to four, from two, the statement said.
The Moscow Times
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| Highland Earnings Soar 134 % |
Highland Gold Mining, partly owned by Roman Abramovich, posted a 134 percent jump in first-half earnings per share Thursday, fueled by higher output and strong prices.
The firm said earnings from continuing operations for the first six months of the year rose to 6.8 cents per share from 2.9 cents in the same period last year.
Highland was on the lookout for takeovers since it had $308.7 million in cash and short-term deposits at the end of June, it said in a statement.
"The board will examine all aspects of the business to focus on the best way to exploit the company's strong net cash position," chairman Duncan Baxter said.
The strong results were because of an 18 percent rise in output to 68,813 ounces and a 39 percent jump in the price at which the gold was sold to $909 per ounce.
The Moscow Times
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| Mechel Buys German Trader |
Mechel said Wednesday that it agreed to buy German metals trader HBL Holding after entering a bid for the company to the German anti-monopoly authorities earlier this month.
A spokesman declined to name the price of the deal, which was not given in the statement. As part of its bid, Mechel secured a one-year bridge loan for $1.5 billion organized by ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch.
Reunters
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