Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov is proposing a tie-up between his Metalloinvest iron ore group and Norilsk Nickel that would make him the largest shareholder in a merged giant, the Russian paper Vedomosti reported on Monday.
The report is the latest in a series on proposals for a metals and mining mega-merger that could help the companies clear debt and possibly bring in the state as a shareholder.
Norilsk and Metalloinvest were not immediately available for comment.
Usmanov is proposing to combine his Metalloinvest holding with Norilsk Nickel, valuing Metalloinvest at half of Norilsk's value. Usmanov would also contribute Metalloinvest's 75 percent share of the giant Udokan copper deposit.
Usmanov would be left with 37 percent in the new giant, under his plan. Norilsk's largest shareholder, Vladimir Potanin's Interros group, would receive 16.6 percent, as would Oleg Deripaska's RUSAL, which owns 25 percent of Norilsk. The combined company would then issue shares to the government, giving the state a stake of at least 25 percent plus one share, and use the proceeds to clear debt inherited from Metalloinvest and Norilsk Nickel.
Deripaska said on Saturday that RUSAL itself, which put up its one-quarter stake in Norilsk as collateral on a loan from state bank VEB, would not participate in a merger.
The aluminium giant could issue a convertible bond to the government to help it clear his debts, Deripaska told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
Newspapers recently reported Potanin and Rusal suggesting a merger of half a dozen companies, including two steel groups and potash miner Uralkali which would swap their inherited debts to the state for an equity stake.
Some of Russia's richest men, who borrowed billions of dollars in the boom years under former President Vladimir Putin, have been badly hit by the economic crisis as the value of collateral they put up as security for major loans plummeted.
Senior Russian officials and businessmen have held discussions on merging Norilsk, the world's top producer of nickel and palladium, with several large metals and mining companies.
Source: Reuters
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