State-owned 89.5% of Solikamsk Magnesium Plant transferred to Rosatom

PERM. Jan 23 (Interfax) - The state-owned 89.5% of shares in Solikamsk Magnesium Plant or SMZ from the Perm Territory have now been transferred to the state Rosatom corporation, SMZ said in a statement.

The shares were transferred on January 22.

The government gave an instruction in December for the shares to be transferred to Rosatom as a property contribution.

SMZ said earlier that 356,276 shares or 89.5% of its charter capital would be transferred to Rosatom.

Rosatom's mining division already included Lovozersky GOK LLC, which produces loparite concentrate in the Murmansk region. SMZ produces rare earth metal concentrate, tantalum, niobium and titanium sponge.

The SMZ general director, Ruslan Dimukhamedov, has said the Rosatom mining division would thereby consolidate the whole chain from mining to production of rare earth metals, and its key task at SMZ would be increase production capacity and ensure the country's raw material independence.

The Prosecutor General's Office, acting in the interests of the Federal Property Management Agency, petitioned the Perm Territory Arbitration Court in October 2021 to withdraw 89.5% of the SMZ shares that were owned by four large individual shareholders, namely Sergei Kirpichev with 15.45%, Pyotr Kondrashev with 24%, Timur Starostin with 25% and Igor Pestrikov with 25%. The appellate and cassation instances have upheld the decision. The Russian president signed a decree in January 2023 on transferring a stake in SMZ which became federal property in 2022, to Rosatom. The prosecutor's office of the Perm Territory is currently trying through the courts to claim, in favor of the Russian Federation, the remaining SMZ shares from minority shareholders.

SMZ has charter capital of 99,568 rubles, comprising 398,272 ordinary shares with a par value of 0.25 rubles per share.

SMZ produces magnesium and rare metal products, namely niobium, tantalum, titanium, and several others.