By John Helmer, Moscow
Alrosa, Russia’s state diamond monopoly, will be ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO) by late 2011 for a 20% stake in the company, Alrosa’s chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said cryptically on the sidelines of a Moscow investor conference on Wednesday. But will international investors be ready to buy shares of Alrosa by then, and at what discount to the share value of Alrosa’s global mining peers?
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By John Helmer, Moscow
In December, when we last visited with Mikhail Prokhorov, the only Russian to own an American basketball team, he appeared to be announcing that he prefers his ball to his shovel, and is getting ready to sell Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading goldminer, to “one of the leading gold companies in the world”.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
At the gentlemen’s club bar, within stone’s throw of BP headquarters in St. James’s, the world famous investor confessed to having a tighter grasp on his gin and tonic than on the benefits he can count from BP’s deal with Rosneft, at least for shareholders of the former company.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
According to what Morgan Stanley has written on page 7 of the Nord Gold prospectus just released , the goldminer owned by Alexei Mordashov – this week trying to sell its shares on the London Stock Exchange — “has entered into a relationship agreement with OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder to ensure that it will be able, at all times, to carry on its business independently of each of OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder and that all transactions and relationships between the Company, OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder are at arm’s length and on a normal commercial basis.”
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By John Helmer, Moscow
If you stroll past BP’s London headquarters at night, and glance up, to the right of the top storey you will see an office window illuminated in bright blue. This may be the playroom of the former BP chief executive Lord Browne, whose departure from the company was accelerated by the intimate games he played. Bob Dudley, the current incumbent (image), may keep the blue light on in the evenings while he practices his footwork for dance tunes.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Mother Hubbard, one of the most popular old English nursery rhymes, was a hard-luck case. Her kindliness and generosity were ruthlessly exploited by her conniving dog, who played dead for sympathy and then took her for everything she was worth.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Moscow commercial court documents, filed on December 29 and 30, reveal that Franco-Swiss bank BNP Paribas is suing leading Russian grain trader RosInterAgroservis (RIAS) for $20.1 million. The claim, formally lodged against the RIAS subsidiary ZAO Kubankhleboprodukt, as well as its parent OOO RosAgroInterservis, refers to loans made earlier which remain unpaid.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
In its 20-year history, the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been notoriously slow to process borrower applications and disburse funds. Insiders say this reflects the problems of adjusting the commercial imperatives of the bank’s €53 billion project financing book, to the political realities and demands of the 63 shareholders who were on opposing sides of the Cold War until 1991.
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“The president promised to tear off the heads of those who attacked me” said Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who was severely beaten last November.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Suppose, just suppose that Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia (image far left), and Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of resource concessions (image far right), were stakeholders somehow of United Company Rusal, the state aluminium champion. And suppose, just suppose they decided that the hostile takeover strategy of Rusal CEO, Oleg Deripaska (second left), against Norilsk Nickel, state nickel, copper and platinum champion, has gone too far, and is now depressing both companies’ share values. Accordingly, just suppose they have invited Deripaska, along with the controlling stakeholders of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin (second right) and CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, to come up with enough fresh cash to suit everyone, and enable Norilsk Nickel to buy back the 25% stake Deripaska purchased from Mikhail Prokhorov in better times, three years ago, for roughly $14.5 billion. And suppose, just suppose Deripaska has been in to chat with Putin and Sechin, and between them they have come up with a price Potanin and Strzhalkovsky say they can’t afford.
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