Moscow press review for November 24, 2011
MOSCOW. Nov 24 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on November 24. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
VEDOMOSTI
The world's largest cement producer Lafarge is considering the purchase of 75% in Oleg Deripaska's Baselcement, of which two sources close to both parties told Vedomosti. One of them said the deal could also be appealing to Russian cement giant Eurocement, whose Mikhailovcement will soon become a direct competitor of the Serebryansky Plant in the Rostov region, which Basel plans to launch at the end of 2012. Anyway, no particular conditions of the deal have yet been discussed, and Ireland's Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), which offered $500 million to $600 million for the asset in October, is still considered the most likely buyer, the Vedomosti's sources said. ('Grappling For Cement')
EuroChem is prepared to sell 25% in the company EuroChem Fertilizers to a Kazakh partner, which is carrying out a phosphorus production project and is building a fertilizer plant in that country, EuroChem General Director Dmitry Strezhnev told Vedomosti. He did not say how much the asset has been valued at and with whom the negotiations are proceeding. Two years ago, EuroChem acquired a license to develop fields containing about 140 million tonnes of phosphorus in the basin of the Karatau river. EuroChem will not confine itself only to producing raw materials and plans to build plants to produce phosphate, nitrogen, and compound fertilizers with an aggregate capacity of over 1 million tonnes at the site of the Sarytas plant, which has stayed idle for 15 years. The overall amount of investments the company plans to make in the project is about $2 billion, Strezhnev said. ('$500 Mln Partner')
Oleksandr Hlus, the holder of a blocking stake in the Ukrainian alcohol producer Nemiroff, has begun negotiations on changing the company's distributor in Russia, of which Hlus himself told Vedomosti. The negotiations are proceeding with the companies Moro, ILS, and Megapolis (belongs to Ukraine's Khortytsya). Hlus says he decided to look for a new Russian distributor after other shareholders, Anatoly Kipish and Yakiv Hrybov, did not appear at a shareholder meeting scheduled in Moscow for November 11, at which supplies to Russia were to be discussed. Hlus says he will make a decision on a new Russian partner within a week. ('Stake On Competitor')
KOMMERSANT
Turkmenistan has reached an agreement with China on tripling supplies of its natural gas to that country to 65 billion cubic meters a year within the next four years. This implies, on one hand, that China's interest in Russian gas would decline, and on the other, that Turkmenistan's chances to start exporting its gas to the European Union will drop. (Page 11, 'Turkmen Gas Being Diverted From Europe')
Inter RAO UES is unhappy about the terms and conditions on which it operates the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant and is seeking to terminate the contract early. It is a rare occasion that a nuclear plant built in the Soviet time is operated not by a national company, which Armenia does not have, but an external one. This means essentially that the Russia's Rosatom remains the only alternative to Inter RAO in this respect. However, Rosatom is interested more in building a new power plant in Armenia rather than in operating the existing one. (Page 11, 'Inter RAO Splits From Armenian Atom')
Ernst & Young has revalued the Sheremetyevo airport and terminal D, which are in the process of merger now, and it turned out that Sheremetyevo is cheaper by 27% and terminal D by 46% than was thought before. If the valuation is endorsed, the shares of the terminal's shareholders in the merged airport, i.e. Aeroflot, VEB, and VTB, could be lower than was planned, and the merger itself could be delayed. (Page 1, 'Sheremetyevo Loses Quarter Of Value')
Influence that European problems have on the Russian banking market is growing. Significant investments in Greece's debt securities may prevent Germany's Commerzbank from taking part in Promsvyazbank's [RTS: PRSB] extra issue, and it will have to agree to dilution of its interest first to 14% and then even less. The second largest German bank finds it unacceptable to part even with 15 million euro to preserve its share in one of the largest Russian banks. (Page 10, 'What Is Capital To Russian Is Schwach To German')
