Metalloinvest to buy 20% stake back from VTB by Nov
MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - The Metalloinvest iron ore and steel holding will buy back a 20% stake from the VTB bank by November.
Asked by Interfax whether the stake would be purchased by then, Alisher Usmanov, the holding's core owner, answered in the affirmative.
Metalloinvest in March this year acquired $2.48 billion in VTB promissory notes that come due in December in order to buy back 20% of its own shares.
VTB acquired the 20% stake in Metalloinvest from Vasily Anisimov in December 2011. According to unofficial reports, the transaction came to $2.5 billion, $1.9 billion of which went to pay off an earlier loan.
Metalloinvest has said the 20% held by VTB might be offered to investors in a future IPO.
Metalloinvest is the largest iron ore producer in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Its main production subsidiaries are Lebedinsky Mining & Processing (MGOK) , Mikhailovsky Mining & Processing (MGOK) , Oskol Electrometallurgical Combine (OEMK) and Urals Steel. Billionaire Alisher Usmanov's Gallagher Holdings Limited owns 50% of Metalloinvest. Vladimir Skoch, father of State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch, holds 30% in the holding and VTB owns 20%, acquired from Vasily Anisimov in December 2011. Usmanov's partner in Gallagher is Farhad Moshiri with 10%.