The High Court of London has started four-day hearings of a dispute between Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL of businessman Oleg Deripaska and Interros of tycoon Vladimir Potanin over a sale of shares in metals giant Norilsk Nickel.
Both businessmen arrived to the court to testify.
A long-standing shareholder conflict, which was resolved in 2012 with the intermediation of Roman Abramovich by signing an agreement with a five-year share lockup period, resumed in mid-February. The lockup period expired in December 2017, when Interros decided to buy Abramovich’s 4% in Norilsk Nickel. RUSAL is trying to suspend the deal in the High Court of London.
In March RUSAL and Interros preliminarily agreed at court that each of them would buy about 2% in the nickel company from Crispian Investments of Abramovich’s Millhouse, whose stake amounted to 6.37%. Interros has already closed its deal to acquire a 2.1% stake.
President of Deripaska’s power company En+ Group Maxim Sokov, a witness, said that after the lockup period Crispian should have sold its Norilsk Nickel shares on the open market or to a third-party strategic investor, but not to a current shareholder. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)