Deripaska Says He’s Trailblazer for Russian Debt Restructuring

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Russia’s biggest non-state debtor, said his success in renegotiating bank loans is a model that his compatriots will follow if they want to preserve what’s left of their assets. Deripaska, whose companies owe more than $25 billion, according to the Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers, said he’s in constant contact with banks on restructuring those loans and expects to win agreements that will let him keep control of his biggest holdings. “We are having success in restructuring,” Deripaska said during a meeting with reporters in Moscow that started at 2 a.m. today. “Others will follow in our footsteps.” Deripaska, 41, won a two-month moratorium on $7.4 billion that his aluminum company, United Co. Rusal, owes to more than 70 banks, including ABN Amro NV, Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA and Merrill Lynch & Co., on March 6. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Deripaska’s vehicle maker OAO GAZ is too big for the government to let fail because it employs “half of the city” of Nizhny Novgorod. Russian companies owe foreign and domestic banks about $180 billion this year, though that figure doesn’t include the penalties that will have to be paid because “covenants have been broken,” Deripaska said. The main goal now, Deripaska said, “is to not give up” assets to creditors. Doing that requires “convincing them to believe in the business model,” he said. Alfa GAZ, which owes 45 billion rubles ($1.34 billion), won’t go bankrupt “under any circumstances,” Deripaska said. “By the end of April, we’ll get an agreement with the banks on restructuring the debt,” he said. Deripaska is having less success convincing fellow billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven to reschedule payments to their Alfa Bank, Russia’s biggest non-state lender. Alfa last month said it won a ruling in Jersey’s Royal Court freezing 13.7 million pounds ($19 million) of assets controlled by Deripaska. Alfa will continue to pursue the “usual measures” to recoup its $800 million loan to Deripaska’s holding company, Basic Element, Aven said in an interview published today in Vedomosti. His remarks were confirmed by the bank. Alfa may agree to restructure the debt and even lend Deripaska more money if more collateral is provided, Aven said. In particular, Alfa is interested in Deripaska’s stakes in insurer Ingosstrakh, builder Transstroy and press distributor Rospechat, according to Vedomosti. To contact the reporter on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net