Deripaska Said to Meet Alfa Chief for $7.4 Billion Debt Talks

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Oleg Deripaska is meeting tonight with Alfa Group founder Mikhail Fridman, one of his aluminum company’s biggest Russian lenders, ahead of talks on restructuring $7.4 billion of debt, according to two people familiar with the matter. They’re meeting in Moscow ahead of United Co. Rusal’s formal negotiations with about 70 foreign lenders in Paris tomorrow, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Deripaska, 41, was formerly Russia’s richest man and saw his wealth tumble 88 percent in the past year to $3.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine. A deal between Deripaska and Fridman is a “prerequisite” to international banks agreeing to a restructuring for Rusal, said Mikhail Stiskin, a Moscow-based analyst at Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment bank. “The second condition” will be how Rusal repays or extends a $4.5 billion loan made by state-owned lender VEB Bank in October, he said. Rusal will meet foreign banks after a March 6 agreement to halt interest payments on its debt expired. Alfa was the only major lender to reject the “standstill,” and instead pursued the Moscow-based company in foreign courts to freeze its assets. Alfa estimates that Rusal and Deripaska’s other companies owe it $800 million, while Basic Element, the oligarch’s holding company, puts the figure at $650 million. Deripaska also controls Russia’s second-largest automaker, OAO GAZ, which is partnering Magna International Inc. in its potential acquisition of General Motors Corp.’s German Opel unit. About one in every 100 Russians is economically reliant on Deripaska’s companies, which also span pulp, cement and power generation, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Deripaska and Fridman, 45, are members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a lobby group with 16 billionaire directors. The Alfa Group chief was also hired as interim CEO of joint-venture oil company TNK-BP Holding May 27. To contact the reporters on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net.