By John Helmer, Moscow

Valued correspondent (aka Boris Bear) has written in to point out an odd typo which crept into the texts of two recent stories involving Victor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik.

They are the two shareholding partners of United Company Rusal, with a 15.8% stake between them, who appear to have uncovered cooking of the books by Oleg Deripaska in relation to the value of Rusal’s 25% bloc of Norilsk Nickel shares. Deripaska amended the company’s financial report. Vekselberg went public.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, March 25th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Commanders of empires like the French, British, American and Russian suffer from an identical blind spot.

They all believe their power (arms, cash) is or should be great enough to destroy their adversaries decisively, totally, so that they can’t get up to fight again. The Americans lost the Vietnam war, as they are losing the Iraq, Afghan and in time, the Libyan and Syrian wars, because their enemies can and do get up to fight again. Not even B-52 carpet bombers, Tomahawk cruise missiles, or assassin drones can kill enough of them, nor the firepower prevent the empire’s casualties reaching breakpoint.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

BC Iron is a small but promising iron-ore miner from Western Australia, which is China’s mineral supply province and rival of Russian suppliers to China. The company is now testing the share price at which it was the target of an abortive takeover attempt a year ago. The bidder at that time, Regent Pacific, a Hong Kong-listed promoter of a junior mining stocks, is part-owned and part-chaired by Stephen Dattels, an impresario of stock market wagers. On the latest available financial reports, Regent Pacific is losing money at the mining game.

Regent Pacific is also the operator of a fixed-odds financial betting scheme which, according to the company website, is “the market leader in its [wagering] industry.” Gambling can be profitable; it seems Regent Markets Holdings Ltd, the betting affiliated unit of the group, is turning over far more money than the mining holding, and at last report generated a 6-month profit of US$1.07 million, compared with US$1.8 million loss for the mining business.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Alrosa has announced that the privatization plan for sale of its shares on the open market should be restricted in order to preserve government control of the company. The announcement was released Friday after a meeting of the Supervisory Board, Alrosa’s board of directors.

Now why exactly would this group of government officials representing the principal and controlling shares in the Russian diamond mining monopoly go to all the trouble of declaring the obvious? Who doesn’t already know and accept this policy?
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Ahead of the March 16 election of a new board chairman for United Company Rusal, President-elect Vladimir Putin did something that isn’t widely known; has never happened before; and has not been disclosed by Rusal.

The story of what happened in the run-up to the board vote can be read here. The qualifications of the new chairman, Barry Cheung, are here.

According to the Rusal press release of March 18, “Barry Cheung’s election as a Chairman was supported by a majority vote of the Board, including the independent directors. This proves that his candidacy meets the interests of all shareholders, including minorities. His appointment was also met by a marked rise in the Company’s share price, which had been declining over the past few days under pressure from the emotional and groundless statements made by SUAL Partners [Victor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik].”
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Barry Cheung (second left), the new board chairman of United Company Rusal and the first non-Russian chairman of a Russian monopoly, is viewed by his countrymen and business peers as a technocrat, a politician, and a businessman, in that order.

The one business he reports in the curriculum vitae released by Rusal is the Bermuda-registered, Hong Kong-listed Titan Petrochemicals Group Limited. This company says it has concentrated on selling floating and land-based oil storage services for Chinese oil buyers, as well as bunker fuel for vessels, after dropping out of the business of oil trading in 2008. Cheung says he was chief executive officer between July 2004 and January 2008, and then vice chairman of the Titan board. A search of Titan’s annual reports from 2008 to 2011 reveals that Cheung was replaced as chief executive in 2007 and moved to deputy chairman of the board; but he resigned from that post in June 2008.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 19th, 2012
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Because the JFC company spokesman refused to confirm the name of Vladimir Kekhman’s wife, and thus clarify whether she has played a role in the management and board direction of JFC, it was incorrectly reported that Tatiana Litvinova, until very recently a board director at JFC, was Kekhman’s wife. This appears to be incorrect, based on research in the publicly accessible picture files of Russian media.

According to JFC, Mrs Kekhman’s identity was a private matter, and that’s where it would remain, if Viktoria Aminova had not agreed to publication of photographs of her with her husband (numbers 1 and 2), at presentations of fashion designs she sells (3 and 4), and at a public lecture on ballet and fashion (5). The likeness is confirming; so is the ring on the left finger in pictures 1, 3 and 5.

by John Helmer - Monday, March 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Vladimir Kekhman, the controlling shareholder of Joint Fruit Company (JFC), Russia’s biggest banana trader, has received a summons to appear in the UK High Court to face charges of contempt of court. If he is found culpable, he may be jailed. If he doesn’t appear and is convicted, he may be arrested on warrants exercisable at the frontiers of almost every country Kekhman likes to visit, especially on the tours planned this year for the Mikhailovsky Theatre and Ballet Company which Kekhman also directs.

It is unprecedented for a major Russian business figure to undergo a contempt of court proceeding in the British courts, and to date none has been sent to prison. But the case of Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov is a warning and omen for Kekhman. Ablyazov, the former controlling shareholder of BTA Bank, was convicted last month and sentenced to 22 months in prison for contempt in relation to High Court asset freeze orders. He is now on the run.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 15th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Oleg Deripaska (image top right) has always had trouble with his business partners when money rewards, administrative pressure, threats, or rigged courts failed to be persuasive. So he might have been more cautious announcing yesterday that the replacement of Victor Vekselberg as chairman of the board of United Company Rusal will be Deripaska’s decision to make swiftly and easily. At a conference call yesterday with reporters, Deripaska claimed the appointment will be made at a board meeting on Friday; and that Vekselberg is likely to be replaced by his choice of one of the board directors Deripaska considers independent. “The chair won’t even get cold,” Deripaska is reported as telling the reporters. None of the reporters is reported to have said anything.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Sergei Stepashin is a former Prime Minister of Russia. He’s also been a security minister, justice minister and interior minister. He holds a doctorate of law, the academic rank of professor, and the military rank of Colonel-General. This is a serious pedigree — when he tilts at a target, Stepashin is a master of pen and sword. For many years he has headed the state audit organization responsible for supervising the legality and efficacy of state tax-gathering and state spending. This outfit is called the Accounting Chamber. Since it was created in 2000, Stepashin has been its only chief.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
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