Russian antitrust gets China request to buy 13% in Bystrinsky GOK

MOSCOW, Mar 25 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has received a request by Highland Fund, a consortium of Chinese companies, to buy 13.3% in the Bystrinsky GOK ore mining and dressing plant’s project from metals giant Norilsk Nickel, a representative of the service told PRIME on Friday.

“The corresponding request has been received,” the representative said.

The deal was signed by Norilsk Nickel and the fund in December 2015, and the Russian company is to receive U.S. $100 million for the stake.

On Thursday, Norilsk Nickel CEO Vladimir Potanin said the company does not rule out a possibility to allow Chinese companies to raise their stake in the project to up to 20%, but will study it only after the sale of the 13.3% stake is approved. The antitrust service’s Director Igor Artemyev said that the increase of the stake to 20% will have to be approved by the government’s commission on foreign investment control.

The project includes the construction of quarries, transport and engineering infrastructure and the Bystrynsky GOK ore dresser at the Bystrinskoye field located near the Baikal Lake. The ore dresser, whose capacity will stand at 10 million tonnes, will be launched in 2017, and Chinese firms are expected to become consumers of the plant’s main production, copper concentrate.

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