Polyus sees no strategic investor to replace China’s Fosun

MOSCOW, Feb 15 (PRIME) -- Russian gold producer Polyus does not expect any other strategic investor to buy a stake in the company after cancellation of a 10% stake sale to China’s Fosun, CEO Pavel Grachyov said on Thursday in a conference call.

Polyus was not part of the deal. “Nevertheless, we don’t see any initiatives to look for a replacement among strategic investors, and we see no such investors in our field of view,” he said.

Still, the company is interested in raising its free-float. “We have always been saying that we are aimed at expansion of free float. It is obviously done through the sales of shares. We won’t disclose the terms, the amount, and the sources,” he said.

In January, Polyus said it had cancelled an agreement to sell the stake and an option for 5% more shares to Fosun. A representative of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said that the fund will remain a shareholder of Polyus.

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