5 Jul 2022 09:53

Potanin agrees to talks on Nornickel, Rusal merger

MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) - The head of Nornickel , Vladimir Potanin has agreed to begin negotiations on the merger of the mining giant and aluminum company Rusal .

"I sent a letter today in which I confirmed our agreement to begin the process of discussing a merger with Rusal," Potanin said in an interview with TV channel RBC.

Nornickel received the merger proposal from Rusal's management, he said. Such a merger would make it possible to create a national champion and further diversify the shareholder base, Potanin said, though he still does not see any synergy between the two companies' businesses.

"We have always been opposed to such mergers, since we didn't see and still don't see any production synergies. That is, we have different competitive advantages. There is rich ore and cheap electricity here, we have different competitive advantages and different production systems," Potanin said.

"But now there are other factors. This is resilience, this is the green agenda. Rusal is the company that produces the greenest aluminum out of all other companies. Nornickel is also exerting great efforts in this direction and produces nickel, palladium for batteries, also for the future green economy," Potanin said.

Furthermore, a merger would make it possible to diversify the composition of shareholders and acquire additional resilience to sanctions, as well as state support for projects in Russia, he said.

"All this compelled us to return to this proposal from Rusal, rethink it, and today we responded with agreement to enter into such a conversation," Potanin said.