Crispian may buy $158 mln quasi-treasury shares of Norilsk Nickel

MOSCOW, Apr 12 (PRIME) -- Crispian, affiliated with tycoon Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse, offered to buy 1.25 million of quasi-treasury shares of Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel at a market price of U.S. $158 million, Norilsk Nickel said in a statement Tuesday.

The quasi-treasury shares account for a 0.79% stake in the metals giant. The company bought the stake during a buyback in mid-2015. Currently, Crispian owns 5.5% in Norilsk Nickel.

The proposal will be studied by independent directors during a meeting of the audit committee, and on April 18 the deal will be discussed by the company’s board of directors, Norilsk Nickel and a representative of the company said.

Other major shareholders of Norilsk Nickel are Vladimir Potanin’s Interros with 30.3%, Oleg Deripaska’s RUSAL with 27.8%, and Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest with 3.2%.

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