PRESS: Sual may not buy 12% in RUSAL from Onexim – sources

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Sual Partners of Viktor Vekselberg and Leonid Blavatnik may not complete a deal to buy a 12% stake in aluminum giant UC RUSAL from Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group, as difficulties have occurred, business daily Vedomosti reported on February 5 citing five sources close to RUSAL’s shareholders.

“The term of the deal’s completion is not clear,” three of the sources said. “It may not take place at all,” a source close to one side of the talks said.

The value of RUSAL has almost doubled since the summer when the sides started negotiating the deal, two sources said. Onexim is not ready to sell the stake at the summer price, sources said. Moreover, there are difficulties with an approved loan of Sberbank, sources said.

One more difficulty is connected with requirements of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A buyer and a seller should confirm that they are not affiliated and the sale of only 12% and not the entire Onexim’s 17.5% stake is not a way to avoid an offer to the remaining shareholders, one of the sources said.

Vedomosti reported earlier that Sual Partners can buy 12% in RUSAL from Prokhorov for much less than U.S. $750 million and the company has already borrowed $350 million for the deal from Sberbank.

Kommersant reported earlier that Vekselberg was ready to buy a total of 17% in Onexim for around $1 billion.

Vekselberg said in late September that he expected the deal to close within a month.

Vekselberg and Blavatnik now own 15.8% in RUSAL.

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