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Uralchem closes deal to buy 20% of Uralkali

MOSCOW, December 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Uralchem (a holding of mineral fertilizer producers) has closed a deal on the purchase of 20 percent of shares of Russia’s major potash fertilizer company Uralkali, Uralchem said in a release.

The deal is financed by the VTB Capital Bank that extended to the company a loan worth $4.5 billion, most of which will be used to pay for the purchased Uralkali shares, and the rest might be used for Uralchem’s current debt repayment.

“We thank VTB Group for the confidence and help in the financing and organisation of this complex structured transaction within a short time,” said Dmitry Konyayev, Uralchem director general.

In became known earlier on Friday that ONEXIM Group of Mikhail Prokhorov closed a deal on the purchase of 21.75 percent of Uralkali shares from Suleyman Kerimov Foundation. In addition to this package, ONEXIM Group and Prokhorov’s associates are buying a blocking stake in Uralkali.

On the basis that the company’s market value is $15.2 billion on the London Exchange at 11:30 MSK, the package bought from Kerimov is evaluated at $3.3 billion and an additional five-percent stake - at $760 million.

Itar-Tass had previously reported that in mid-November, the investment group ONEXIM of Mikhail Prokhorov said it had reached an agreement on the purchase of 21.75 percent of Uralkali shares from Suleyman Kerimov’s charity foundation, and Uralchem Group reported an agreement on the purchase of 20 percent of shares of the potash producer - the packages of Anatoly Skurov and Filaret Galchev, as well as another 12.2 percent of shares on the open market.

Proposals on the purchase of Uralkali shares started to come to the company’s main shareholders - Federation Council member Suleiman Kerimov, Filaret Galchev and Anatoly Skurov in late August after Uralkali Director General Vladislav Baumgertner was detained in Minsk on suspicion of abuse of power.

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