Russian Platinum not in talks with Petropavlovsk about combining assets
VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 8 (Interfax) - Musa Bazhayev's Russian Platinum is not currently holding talks with Petropavlovsk plc on combining assets, Russian Platinum's deputy CEO for strategy and development, told Interfax on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
In April last year, Petropavlovsk said that it had agreed to buy Amur Zoloto from firms controlled by Bazhayev for an anticipated $144 million, not including Amur Zoloto's net debt of $16 million, to be paid for with shares in Petropavlovsk. As a result, Bazhayev's firms would have received 30.3% of Petropavlovsk. At the beginning of December, it emerged that the Bazhayev firms were ready to review understandings reached with Petropavlovsk in favor of the latter and could agree to receive a 20% stake in the gold miner as consideration for a deal to acquire Amur Zoloto instead of a previously envisaged 30%. But the Bazhayev firms then advised Petropavlovsk that they would not seek to extend the agreement beyond its long-stop date of December 31.
The Bazhayev firms have bought 2.42% of Petropavlovsk since then.
Petropavlovsk's board of directors changed almost entirely over the summer, and its founder Pavel Maslovsky quit as CEO. Major Petropavlovsk shareholders - Viktor Vekselberg's Renova, and the Sothic and M&G funds - were behind the changes. Firms controlled by Vekselberg, including Metkombank, hold the biggest stake in Petropavlovsk, which is 22.34%.