Potanin's ex-wife appeals ruling against dividing Norilsk Nickel stake
MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) - Natalya Potanina, the ex-wife of MMC Norilsk Nickel CEO Vladimir Potanin, has filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court against a ruling by the Presnensky District Court that rejected her claim to half of Vladimir Potanin's holdings in the Arctic mining and smelting giant, Potanina's press office said.
The Presnensky District Court in September ruled against Potanina in a lawsuit against her former husband that sought a stake in Norilsk Nickel as well as assets from Vladimir Potanin's Interros group.
Potanina filed the suit at the end of April, seeking to receive half of Potanin's holdings in Norilsk Nickel and Interros International Investments. Potanina said she would put the Norilsk Nickel stake she is claiming into the state's trusteeship.
The defendants in the case of Potanina were nine offshore companies of Interros (Boledstone Services, Bonico Holdings, Enalo Trading, ICFI Cyprus, Montebella Holdings, Olderfrey Holdings, Sorange Investment, Tacom Holdings, Whiteleave Holdings) and also CJSC Interros holding company, Potanin and two citizens of Cyprus, Maria Phylactou and Sofia Iosif.
Phylactou and Iosif, according to the official documentation of Norilsk Nickel and Interros, are the final beneficiaries of Cyprus's Interros International Investments, which earlier was the parent company to a number of subsidiaries, which controlled a total of 30.41% of the stakes in Norilsk Nickel.
"Natalya Potanina still considers that the 30% of Norilsk Nickel, and also the Cyprus-registered Interros International Investments Limited, should be divided as assets amassed over 30 years of marriage. Natalya hopes that the Moscow City Court will be more attentive to the documents for submission that confirm that Vladimir Potanin is behind the multi-divisional structure of the Cypriot companies," lawyers for Potanina said in the November 12 press release.