Niet Norilsk

20 December 2007 By Pierre Briancon

Vladimir Potanin hasn t found the $16bn he needed to buy out Mikhail Prokhorov, his former friend and partner, at Norilsk Nickel. The stake is likely to go to Rusal s Deripaska. But the bitter fight between the two billionaires is far from over.

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Vladimir Potanin, the Russian businessman, has failed to find the financing he needs for his intended acquisition of a 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, reports The Times of London. Citigroup, acting on behalf of Potanin, hasn't been able to round up the funds due to the credit crunch, the newspaper says.

This means that, as was widely expected, Potanin, the owner of a 25.3% stake in Norilsk, won't be able to meet a December 21 deadline to prevent the stake held by his former ally Mikhail Prokhorov to be acquired by Rusal, the aluminium giant controlled by another oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.

Potanin and Prokhorov have for months been embroiled in a bitter fight to split the assets they have jointly amassed since the mid1990s. Besides their direct stakes in Norilsk Nickel, the two men jointly control KMInvest, a holding company with $11bn of assets, including an 8% stake in Norilsk, an 8% stake in Polyus Gold, one of the world's largest gold producers, a controlling stake in Rosbank, a Russian bank currently being acquired by France's Societe Generale, as well as real estate and insurance interests.

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