BLBG:Norilsk Nickel Offers to Buy the 15% Stake Held by Rusal for $8.75 Billion
OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel offered to buy back a 15 percent stake held by United Co. Rusal for $8.75 billion as billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska battle for control of the world’s largest nickel producer.
The offer, which amounts to $306 a share, is valid until Sept. 5, provided it is approved by Norilsk’s board on Aug. 24, the company said in a statement posted today on its website.
The price represents a 20 percent premium to the six-month average of Norilsk’s stock, it said. Deripaska is chief executive officer of Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer. Potanin’s Interros Holding controls 30 percent of Norilsk.
Norilsk doesn’t intend to repurchase stock from minority holders should 25 percent-shareholder Rusal accept a buyback proposal, board member Larisa Zelkova said Aug. 15. Should Rusal snub the bid, Norilsk will make the offer to minorities on the same terms, she said.
Norilsk and Rusal may be able to sign a shareholders’ agreement regarding Rusal’s remaining 10 percent stake, following a buyback, the nickel producer said in its statement today. Moscow-based Norilsk plans to use its own funds along with loans to fund the offer, it said.
“We consider our holding in Norilsk a strategic investment, but being a public company we discuss all offers in accordance with Rusal’s corporate procedures,” Rusal said in an e-mailed statement.
Norilsk shares gained 0.3 percent to 6,523 rubles at 11.49 a.m. in Moscow trading, after earlier declining as much as 2 percent. Rusal’s Russian depositary receipts fell 0.6 percent today to 307.8 rubles after earlier declining 2 percent.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net
