Potanin sold part of Norilsk stake under deal with Deripaska

 Vladimir Potanin sold a 5% stake in Norilsk Nickel as part of an agreement with Oleg Deripaska’s United Co Rusal, which stipulated that both companies hold the same amount of shares, a source familiar with the situation told MB.

Potanin owns a 25% plus one share in Norilsk Nickel – a drop from the 30% stake he held mid-last year, according to a statement relating to Plug Power, in which Potanin is a shareholder, released to the US Securities & Exchange Commission, .

“At the end of 2008 there was an agreement between Potanin and Deripaska that they should have equal amount of Norilsk shares for... parity,” the source told MB.

In line with the agreement, Deripaska owns 25% plus two shares in Norilsk, a stake he bought from Potanin last year.

Rusal has a $4.5 bln credit facility with Russian state bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), which it took to repay western banks the cash it borrowed to buy the stake.

But analysts speculate there may also be other factors behind Potanin selling the shares. The shares were sold as part of a buyback in which Potanin received a premium to enable him to pay back debt, Renaissance Capital metals analyst Rob Edwards told MB.

“The price set for the buyback was unjustifiably high but the shareholder’s [Potanin's] urgent need for cash meant it was pushed through nonetheless,” he added.

Potanin may have sold the shares for a total of $1.7 bln, a second analyst estimated, adding that he believed that was an inflated price.

Ex-Kremlin official Alexander Voloshin was voted Norilsk chairman at the end of December at an extraordinary general meeting after Potanin stood down from the position only weeks before.

His appointment came after Rusal and Interros, owned by Potantin, reached a deal to co-operate over Norilsk Nickel at the start of December, ending a long-running feud between the two companies.

Under the new agreement, Rusal and Interros agreed to create a balanced board of directors at Norilsk.

In September last year, Rusal accused Norilsk of violating corporate governance after it announced that three of its subsidiaries bought back as much as 9% of the company .

Norilsk’s three subsidiaries OJSC Norilsk Kombinat, OJSC Kola MMC and OJSC OGK-3 bought 4 mln, 6.5 mln and 6 mln shares in the company respectively, the nickel producer said at the time.