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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot (SCF), the state oil tanker company and currently the 5th energy shipper in the world, has made its first detailed public disclosure to investment markets in a multi-million dollar debt prospectus. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and VTB are the arrangers.

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By John Helmer in Moscow The US Government has decided not to let Victor Vekselberg off so easily. The US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) has filed for an extension of time to allow the Justice Department in Washington to consider a detailed brief, arguing that Vekselberg should face the […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Prospectuses are like lap dances. It’s necessary to keep one’s distance so that the baser instincts don’t cloud one’s better judgement. In a recent West Country court ruling, a lap-dancing bar lost an appeal of the revocation of its adult entertainment licence. The club claimed its lap-dancers were lawfully adhering […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow With just a week to go before Oleg Deripaska asks Norilsk Nickel’s international shareholders to vote in favour of his hostile takeover of the company, the UK High Court has ordered an end to Deripaska’s tactics towards former patron and partner, Michael Cherney (Chernoy); dismissed more of Deripaska’s claims about […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Gennady Timchenko and his allies in state-controlled companies in the Russian oil business are gradually consolidating their dominance over much of Russian oil from the wellhead to the tanker enroute to international markets, and much of the transportation network in between. As the largest energy exporter in the world, Russia […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow How much gold should potential investors in Alexei Mordashov’s gold-mining venture, now named NordGold, think they are buying into?

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By John Helmer in Moscow The Severstal steel and mining group, owned by Alexei Mordashov, has issued a prospectus this week for the issue of up to $3 billion in loan participation notes to restructure the group’s current debts. The issue is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has ordered the arrest of the Russian-owned cruise vessel, Lyubov Orlova, after the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) filed suit last week on behalf of the crew. The 49 Russian and 2 Ukrainian mariners have been stranded on the vessel at the port […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow On October 6, Peter Hambro claimed in an interview with Reuters Television that his proposed stock exchange listing of IRC Ltd., a titanium and iron-ore miner in the Amur and Jewish Autonomous Region of fareastern Russia, is his idea of a gift: “We’ve always wanted to give Russian people access […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow “Never apologize and never explain. It’s a sign of weakness”. That line comes from a 1949 film called “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”. In that one, John Wayne played a cavalry commander on the verge of retirement who tries to beat his Cheyenne foes one more time. He fails at […]