MOSCOW, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest diamond producer Alrosa [RTS: ALRS] and Mechel [NYSE: MTL], a leading Russian steel and alloy producer, will bid for coal assets in the northeastern Republic of Yakutia, the tender organizers said Friday.
The tender will offer 68.86% of shares in the coal company Elgaugol, 75% minus one share in Yakutugol and an unfinished 320-km (199-mile) section of the Ulak-Elga railway. The prospective buyer will undertake to put the railway into operation no later than September 30, 2010, the federal property fund said.
The lot's starting price is 47.4 billion rubles (about $1.89 billion) with a bid increment of 100 million rubles ($4 million), the fund said.
Foreign investors will be able to bid through Russian companies or a consortium with some of them.
At the same time, the tender commission denied the company Kolorprofil, which represents the interests of the world's largest steel company Arcelor Mittal, admittance to the tender, saying it would give the reasons for the refusal later.
