Rusal may spin off Norilsk Nickel stake into newco
Rusal, the aluminum company owned by En+, the holding owned by Oleg Deripaska, could spin off its 28% stake in Norilsk Nickel into a newco, according to a newswire report. The report carried on Bloomberg yesterday 18 September cited En+ CEO Maxim Sokov, who said that the spin-off might include some of Rusal's debt. The report said that part of Rusal's USD 10bn debt was created when it acquired the Norilsk stake in 2008.
The item cited Sokov as saying that this would allow Rusal to resume paying dividends.
The item cited Sokov as reiterating that Rusal had no intention of selling the Norilsk stake.
Sokov added that En+ had no intention of delisting Rusal from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the report said.
Sokov added that he would be happy if some of Rusal's large shareholders sold part of their stakes to boost Rusal's free float.
The report noted that Rusal's stake in Norilsk was USD 8.7bn. The item said that En+ holds a 42% stake in Rusal.
Source Newswire Round-up