7 Sep 2010 12:17

Silvinit sells 32% of potash trader

MOSCOW. Sept 7 (Interfax) - Silvinit has sold its 32% stake in International Potassium Company (IPC), which sells the company's potassium chloride abroad, Silvinit said in a statement.

Silvinit says the deal was done on August 19 and that IPC was removed from its list of affiliated entities on September 2. The company did not say who bought the shares.

According to the SPARK database, Silvinit used to own 33.1% of IPC. Moscow-based CJSC Sotrudex and Belarusian potash miner Belaruskali owned identical stakes, and Russian potash miner Uralkali owned 0.97%.

Uralkali, Silvinit and Belaruskali established IPC in 1992 to sell potash fertilizer abroad. But Belaruskali set its own trader up, Belarusian Potassium Company (BPC), in 2005. BPC started to operate as a joint trader for Belaruskali and Uralkali on January 1, 2006. Silvinit alone trades potash via IPC at present, while BPC is one of the world's biggest potash traders - Uralkali and Belaruskali supply more than 30% of the world's potash via BPC at present.

Silvini said on August 16 that 44% of its shares had changed hands. IT said it had been informed by shareholders Eventus Aktiengesellschaft, Hustell Trading Ltd., IBH Beteiligungs-und Handelsges, and RI Realinvest that they had sold ordinary shares. Meanwhile, Fenguard Ltd. and Forman Commercial Ltd. informed the company they had acquired respective stakes of 20% and 24%.

According to Silvint, the buyers are not affiliated entities and are not part of a single group.

The new shareholders said they intended to preserve the existing export set-up via IPC.

Sources have told Interfax that Suleiman Kerimov, who already holds a blocking stake in Uralkali, was planning to buy a controlling stake in Silvinit. They said Kerimov firms had already acquired 20% of Silvinit shares from a 25% stake held by Dmitry Rybolovlev for $500 million. However, those reports were not officially confirmed.

Silvinit, from the Perm territory, develops the Verkhnekamsk potassium-manganese salt deposit with commercial reserves of 3.8 billion tonnes of ore.