Belarus sets up co that might become successor to Slavkali

MINSK/MOSCOW. Dec 13 (Interfax) - Representatives of the Belarusian government have joined the management bodies of OJSC Nedra Nezhin, a new company set up near the potash mine and processing plant being built by Slavkali.

A resolution posted on the national legal website on December 5 said that the government's interests at Nedra Nezhin will be represented by Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister Alexander Shvayunov, First Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Kiyko, First Deputy Economics Minister Yury Chebotar and the first deputy chairman of the State Property Committee, Pyotr Brovkin.

Nedra Nezhin was registered at the end of November in the Lyuban district of Minsk region, near the town of Obchin, where the Nezhinsky GOK mining and processing plant is located, data from Belarus's Unified State Registry of Legal Entities showed. The new company's core business, like that of Nezhinsky GOK, is mining raw materials for chemical and fertilizer production.

Under Belarusian corporate governance practices, the government appoints its representatives to major companies in which it holds a controlling stake. No information has been disclosed publicly about the Nezhinsky GOK project being transferred from Slavkali, whose founder Mikhail Gutseriev was hit by EU sanctions last year, to another company. A spokesman for the Russian billionaire declined to comment and Slavkali's press service could not be reached.

An industry source told Interfax that Nedra Nezhin is the successor to Slavkali.

Nezhinsky GOK will become Belarus's second producer of potash fertilizer, which is currently produced only by state company Belaruskali. The mine, with capacity to produce up to 2 million tonnes of potash annually, was previously scheduled to launch operations in 2023.

The project will cost an estimated $2 billion, of which $600 million was financed with the company's own funds and $1.4 billion with a loan from the China Development Bank, raised through Belarusbank. Payments on the loan were supposed to begin last year and full repayment was scheduled for 2031.

Slavkali is wholly owned by GCM Global Energy Slavkali, which in turn is controlled by UK-based GCM Global Energy. About 18 months ago, Gutseriev, having been put on the EU sanctions list, transferred control of GCM Global Energy (at least 75% of shares) to his younger brother Sait-Salam Gutseriev. In July 2022, Kazakh citizen Salman Gutsariev became the principal shareholder of this company.

Slavkali, along with Belaruskali, has been hit by U.S. sanctions, and Belarusian potash fertilizer is also subject to EU sectoral sanctions.