B&N Bank might become owner of Ufaleynickel - paper
MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax) - Russia's second largest nickel producer, Ufaleynickel , which is controlled by the Timofeyev brothers' Highmetals KDS group, is supposed to be ceded to its largest creditor, Mikail Shishkhanov's B&N Bank for debts, national daily Kommersant reported on Friday, citing sources.
Shishkhanov's former partners in real estate development group PIK - its founder Yury Zhukov and Klever Asset Management head Gregory Shirin - have already joined Ufaleynickel's board of directors.
The board has also been joined by Andrei Marchenko, head of LLC VEB Invest (19% owned by VEB Capital); LLC Rusnickel founder Ruslan Darchiyev and its CEO Galina Platonova; Ufaleynickel CEO Mikhail Gladkov; and Andrei Yekimov.
The board has approved the purchase of 80% of shares in CJSC PO Rezhnickel for 1.5 billion rubles from Ufaleynickel's shareholders - Cyprus-based firms Melonzo Investments Ltd, Nialosa Commercial Ltd and Unitonex Investments Ltd (own 73.7% of the company) and LLC Akros.
Rezhnickel provides raw material for Ufaleynickel, which has capacity to produce 15,000 tonnes of nickel per year. Highmetals KDS, which is controlled by Artyom and Alexander Timofeyev, acquired both companies at the end of 2011 from the Zubitsky family's Industrial Metallurgical Holding.
Ufaleynickel has been in the red since 2011, with the exception of 2013, when it posted a profit of 6 billion rubles on revenue of 5.7 billion rubles; it had a loss of 802 million rubles in the first three quarters of 2014. Rezhnickel reported an annual profit once in the past five years - 411 million rubles in 2013.
Ufaleynickel disclosed in mid-April that management authority had been transferred from LLC Highmetals KDS to Rusnickel. Highmetals KDS has been forced to hand over the assets for debts, the paper reported its sources as saying.
"When the Timofeyevs bought the companies, they assets had about 500 million rubles of debt, but now [they have] about 9 billion rubles," the paper quoted one source as saying.
The paper's sources say that the largest creditor, B&N Bank is supposed to become the owner of these assets. Ufaleynickel had open credit lines of 5.5 billion rubles and $26 million at the bank as of the end of 2014. Rezhnickel does not disclose financial statements.
Otkritie Financial Corporation is also supposed to be involved in the deal, the sources said.