UPDATE 2: Russia’s Lukoil to sell diamond unit to Otkritie for $1.45 bln

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MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Lukoil has signed an agreement to sell its diamond producing unit Arkhangelskgeoldobycha to Otkritie Holding, the parent company of Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank, for U.S. $1.45 billion, Lukoil said in a statement on Friday.

The company plans to close the deal in January–March 2017 after receiving approvals from the state.

Banking sources told PRIME that Otkritie Holding is in negotiations with the country’s second largest bank VTB on attraction of financing for the purchase of Arkhangelskgeoldobycha. The loan will be secured by shares in the purchased company and other assets, the sources said.

A representative of Otkritie Holding confirmed that the company plans to borrow money for the deal. “The deal will be carried out using own funds and borrowed financing that will be attracted for the deal,” the representative said without elaborating.

Arkhangelskgeoldobycha produces diamonds at the Grib deposit in the Arkhangelsk Region. The company launched an ore mining and processing plant at the field in June 2014, and in September it sold its first diamonds.

In 2015, the net loss of Arkhangelskgeoldobycha narrowed by 93.4% on the year to 244.266 million rubles, and the pretax loss narrowed by about 98.5% to 38.832 million. The sales profit stood at 2.857 billion rubles against a 713.602 million ruble net loss a year ago. Sales revenue jumped almost fivefold to 11.966 billion rubles, and the cost of sales almost tripled to 7.608 billion rubles.

(63.6807 rubles – U.S. $1)

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