Ufaleynickel again planning to change management structure
CHELYABINSK. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Shareholders in OJSC Ufaleynickel (Chelyabinsk region) will discuss transferring the powers of the sole executive body to the management organization LLC Highmetals KDS at an extraordinary meeting on March 27, the plant said in an official statement.
The shareholders will also confirm a new version of the enterprise's statue.
The registrar for participation in the meeting will be complied based on data as of February 20.
Rezhnickel and Ufaleynickel, Russia's oldest nickel producers, were part of the coke producer OJSC Koks until two summers ago, when their stock was bought from Koks by the main shareholders of Industrial-Metallurgical Holding - Boris, Yevgenny, and Andrei Zubitsky.
At the end of last year, information surfaced that Highmetals KDS had become the new owner of the two nickel producers. However, the new owner did not disclose its end proprietors. In January of this year, Ufaleynickel's shareholders terminated the powers of the management organization LLC Management Company Industrial Metallurgical Holding (IMH) ahead of schedule and approved Nikolai Grigoryev, Ufaleynickel's former managing director, as the general director for a five-year period.
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) gave the okay to Ufaleynickel to buy 100% of the stock in Rezhnickel in the first half of February. The shares are being purchased in order to simplify the procedure of asset management, Ufaleynickel said.
Chelyabinsk region Governor Mikhail Yurevich has said that Highmetals KDS is preparing the enterprises for sale to a strategic investor. Russia's biggest nickel producers, Norilsk Nickel and the Mechel group, have said they are not interested in the Urals nickel assets.
Ufaleynickel is Russia's third largest nickel producer. It produces from ore mined at the Serovskoye deposit, as well as nickel-containing scrap metal and nickel matte produced by Rezhnickel. Prior to the economic crisis, the plant was turning out 14,000 to 16,000 tonnes of nickel per year. Prior to 2008, the plant was also producing cobalt from Norilsk Nickel cobalt concentrate.
According to Ufaleynickel's official materials, its current owners were four Cypriot offshores that bought 98.71% of the nickel producer's ordinary shares in aggregate - Loroni Holdings Ltd. (24.99%), Melonzo Investments Ltd. (24.95%), Nialosa Commercial Ltd. (24.16%), and Unitonex Investments Ltd. (24.61%).
