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By John Helmer, Moscow Igor Zyuzin (right) is almost entirely dependent on the Russian government for the solvency of his Mechel steelmaking and coalmining group. With between $9 billion and $10 billion in debt, Zyuzin, who owns 65.49% of Mechel’s shares and controls the company as chairman of its board, is now the steel and [...]
Filed under: Coal, Mining, Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Saturday, April 20th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine (NLMK), owned by Vladimir Lisin, has done something that no Russian steelmaker is on record as doing in the current downturn for steel production, sales, and profits; nor in the downturns which have preceded – 1991-93, 1998-99 and 2008-09. It is negotiating with steelworkers and their unions before [...]
Filed under: Mining, Steel by John Helmer - Saturday, November 10th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The co-founder of the Mechel steelmaking and coal-mining group, Vladimir Iorikh, always said the over-confidence of partner Igor Zyuzin (parachutist) would get the company into trouble as big as this. So, rather than go down in flames himself when the crash he expected would come, Iorikh sold out to Zyuzin in [...]
Filed under: Mining, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, September 27th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow If wine were an investment, like company shares, gold, or real estate, then you would expect the Russian oligarchs to put their hands into this particular till. But hobby vineyards and French chateaux aside, there haven’t been many. Still, Vadim Varshavsky’s Croizet cognac (Charente) has not proved to be as ill-fated [...]
Filed under: Foodstuffs, Russian Politics by John Helmer - Thursday, June 28th, 2012
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Filed under: Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Friday, June 15th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine (NLMK) and its owner Vladimir Lisin have won a suppression order against Nikolai Maximov, former owner of the Maxi group of minimills and scrap processors, from the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg. A three-judge panel has imposed a permanent injunction against publication in the press of claims by [...]
Filed under: Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Monday, May 21st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Ekaterina Videman is the spokesman for Mechel and Mechel Mining, wealth accumulation vehicles controlled by Igor Zyuzin (left). What she and the company announce publicly is what they want public shareholders to think, and they do not respond readily to questions. This is allowable under the New York Stock Exchange rules [...]
Filed under: Steel by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow On February 1, 2010, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report on operational results for the previous year, 2009, of the Mechel steel and mining group, Russia’s fifth-ranked steelmaker, which is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The group is owned by Igor Zyuzin (image, [...]
Filed under: Africa-Russia, Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Not since the Biblical one – 5 (loaves) x 2 (fish) ÷ 5,000 (mouths) — has the division of assets proved to generate a value multiplier like the one Igor Zyuzin, owner of the Mechel steel and mining group, is trying to pull off. Or proved less convincing to the crowd [...]
Filed under: Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Sunday, July 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In European folklore, will-o’-the-wisps are lambent flames seen flickering over bogs and fens, and known by many different names and stories. Usually explicable as methane igniting, in some Baltic mythologies the will-o’-the-wisp is believed to signal buried treasure. In others, the ignition is believed to be the trick of a mendacious [...]
Filed under: Oligarchs, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, June 16th, 2011
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