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Eastern Europe
February 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
Deripaska to step down as president of En+ and UC Rusal as sanctions and corporate battles loom
Ben Aris in Berlin
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska will step down as president of his two biggest companies
En+ Group and UC Rusal, Russian daily Kommersant reports, citing sources close to the companies' shareholders. The decision is connected to a corporate showdown between some of Russia’s biggest oligarchs for control of metals giant Norilsk Nickel.
Maxim Sokov, EN+’s CEO, and Rusal CEO Vladislav Solovyov will step up to lead the respective companies at the next board meeting. Deripaska will retain his seat as a non-executive director on the boards of both companies. The tycoon said that he will switch all his attention to GAZ, the iconic automotive company that he also owns. Deripaska was the president of En+ from 2013, and UC Rusal from 2014.
Two sources cited by Kommersant say that Deripaska intends to withdraw from the presidency of UC Rusal against the background of changes in the company's shareholder structure. In 2017 aluminium producer SUAL shareholders Viktor Vekselberg and Leonard Blavatnik increased their stake in Rusal to 20.5%, Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim reduced his to 6%, and Swiss trader Glencore plans to exchange 8.75% of Rusal for 11% of En+.
Standing behind the changes is the growing corporate dispute between Deripaska and fellow oligarchs Roman Abramovich and his partner Alexander Abramov, who control steel miner Evraz, together with Vladimir Potanin, a blue-
Deripaska's exit is seen as an attempt to insulate the companies from any possible fall-out from politically charged attacks.
blooded oligarch from the Yeltsin-era, over control of the metals giant Norilsk Nickel.
Potanin’s holding company Interros owns 30.4% of Norilsk Nickel’s shares and is trying to buy 6.5% owned by Abramovich and Abramov. Last week Rusal sought a London court injunction against the proposed share sale.
Norilsk was subject to a bitter boardroom strug- gle for control between Potanin and Deripaska until the Kremlin imposed a peace settlement on them in 2012 that included Abramovich taking the 6% stake as peacemaker.
Crispian Investments Limited, the Abramovich and Abramov investment vehicle, received a pro- posal from one of the structures of Interros called Bonico Holdings Co Ltd to buy 6.313mn Norilsk Nickel shares that Crispian holds for $234 per share and $23.4 for the ADRs, UC Rusal said . In a letter, Crispian also offered to provide UC Rus- al and another structure of Interros – Whiteleave Holdings – the "right of first refusal" after the purchase. Crispian holds 4.2% of Norilsk accord- ing to Vedomosti, and all in all Abramovich and Abramov's structures own a total of 6.3% of the company.
Afraid the corporate war between the two tycoons is about to break out again, shares in Norilsk tumbled on February 16 more than 8% as the news of the court battle broke.
Deripaska’s decision to step down from his two