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By John Helmer, Moscow
Like the metal itself, Russian Platinum is shy, but ambitious in turn to be recognized as expensive. This isn’t as persuasive as a junior miner of precious metals needs to be if it wants to raise money and find share buyers in the market, as Russian Platinum’s owners, the Bazhaev family, are now proposing.
But their first attempt at a private offering to Russian private equity funds in Moscow last December failed, and they are hiding the presentation document that was distributed. Whether a second attempt will be made at an initial public offering (IPO) on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange depends on whether the company can overcome its coyness and disclose the normal amount of information to be truth tested by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
At the conclusion of a share buyback offer, Severstal has announced that 170 million of the 1.01 billion shares outstanding will be purchased. Alexei Mordashov, the control shareholder with 66% of the shares before the buyback, tendered his shares to the offer in full, as did the associated control company, Lybica Holding, with 19%. There was relatively low participation on the part of investors and shareholding institutions which comprise the current 15% free float.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
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Genuine readers are invited to take a cup of coffee while they taste today’s black news. This is also a test of the website attackers, who are leaving a revealing trail for our internet detectives to follow.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
When Oleg Deripaska and the Rusal group of companies attack one of their most senior executives for a nine-year old crime that wasn’t, the question that arises is: what does the target know about Deripaska and his methods that may be so dangerous, his credibility and his livelihood should be destroyed? Why resort to lying in the courts of New York and Cyprus, despatch false claims to international banks, and leak fabricated allegations to the Russian press, unless Deripaska is personally threatened by the possibility that old friends are ready to spill the beans on him?
Why is Deripaska so afraid of Andrei Raikov that Rusal is claiming he is on an international wanted list, when Interpol says he isn’t?
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 25th, 2012
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by John Helmer - Friday, June 22nd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Alrosa has announced new strategic targets until the end of 2021, following this week’s meeting of the Supervisory Board, as Alrosa’s board of directors is known. How much of the projected growth will depend on Alrosa getting the Kremlin to persuade Vagit Alekperov of LUKoil to do what he doesn’t want to do is the big question for them all — especially for Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who has been demonstrating sharp interest recently in the price he can arrange for an Alrosa asset sale.
An Alrosa statement says its current diamond production level of about 34 million carats per annum will be lifted to between 38 and 40 million carats, a cumulative growth rate of 6%, by increasing production at the new underground mines in Yakutia, and expanding open-pit production at mines in the Arkhangelsk region of northwest Russia. At the same time, the company’s diamond reserves are to be lifted to 1.19 billion carats, a 61% increase over their present level.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, June 21st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
The personal rapport between Oleg Deripaska (left) and Sergei Stepashin (right), chairman of the Accounting Chamber, has been famously uncordial. Some say Stepashin believes Deripaska plotted to cut his term as prime minister to just three months – May 12 to August 9, 1999 – and was one of those persuading the late President Boris Yeltsin to promote Vladimir Putin as prime minister instead. A lot of murky business has transpired since then. But when it comes to discharging his mandate as the state auditor, noone accuses Stepashin of letting his feelings get in the way of his duty. The converse isn’t believed of Deripaska.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Evraz, the Russian steelmaker listed on the London Stock Exchange main board, is being sued in the UK High Court for $35.8 million by a group of Swiss investors over a failed project to build a terminal for iron-ore and coking coal at Yuzhny port, on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast near Odessa. The dispute is over an asset on which Evraz has put a substantially higher value on its own balance-sheets than the Swiss investors are claiming in valuation and compensation in court.
The High Court claim papers were filed on April 26. At the same time, a court in Cyprus agreed to impose a freeze over money in the accounts of an Evraz subsidiary operating in Cyprus called Watney Ltd.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
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READER CAUTION: in tough times collection methods get tougher. The following translation from the Russian, originally published on
June 14, is presented without editing. A slightly different version appeared in Izvestia on
June 13. One of Russia’s leading investigative journalists comments: “the hired criminals did exactly what they were instructed. They did not kill, but intimidated. Completed the task and disappeared. Judging by the state of the law enforcement agencies, they will not be found soon, if ever. Criminals of this kind do not carry the requisition order with them. There are different versions of who could be the customer. The question is whether there is evidence.” Basic Element, the holding owned by Oleg Deripaska, and now directed again by his longtime collaborator Gulzhan Moldazhanova, issued a release on
September 6, 2010, charging that shareholder funds had been misappropriated through false invoicing. At the time the holding
said it had filed charges with the police, and that it “will try to get back the funds, if possible” As for last week’s acts, nothing should be read into this report to suggest there is any public evidence whatsoever about the identity of the perpetrators, their employers, or the motives. The reader is cautioned against the suspicion that the shooting has had precedents involving any of those identified. For more information about the history of Sochi port’s construction problems, see
here.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Roman Trotsenko (centre), chief executive of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), has resigned suddenly. No reason has been announced by USC, which has confirmed that Trotsenko is leaving by July 1.
First appointed by the Kremlin in 2009 to oversee the consolidation of state stakes in shipyards around the country, and inspire the shipyard managers to boost domestic new vessel orders, Trotsenko had been a millionaire developer of commercial real estate and airports, and owner of the Moscow River Shipping Company.
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 18th, 2012
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