RUSAL Urged Bureaucrats to Check Norilsk Nickel Holders

United RUSAL that owns a blocking stake in Norilsk Nickel has addressed Federal Financial Markets Service, urging it to probe into the holders' structure of that company. RUSAL suspects Vladimir Potanin's Interros to have secretly accumulated more than 30 percent in Norilsk Nickel. Under the RF laws, a holder owning 30 percent in a company should offer to other holders to buy out their stakes, RUSAL said, pointing out that Interros made no offer for that purpose. The timing of RUSAL statement is interesting. It was released after ONEXIM Group of Mikhail Prokhorov announced that it amassed over 16 percent in Norilsk Nickel and was ready to sell the stake to Potanin's company for $10 billion. Interros will get over 40 percent in Norilsk Nickel if the deal is executed. Russia's billionaires have been clashing for control over the country's biggest nickel asset for a few months already. Norilsk Nickel was to go to Potanin in the cause of the ownership split between him and Prokhorov, as the latter had agreed to dispose of his stake (a bit more than 25 percent at that time). But that deal wasn't clinched, as Potanin was unable to immediately finance the acquisition of that size, and RUSAL grabbed a blocking stake as a result. www.kommersant.com