Vladimir Potanin, the billionaire boss of Interros holding company, has taken out a $2 billion loan and is looking to borrow more in what experts think is preparation for buying out US RusAl's stake in Norilsk Nickel.
Interros revealed on Thursday that it had borrowed $2 billion in five-year credit lines from Russia's largest lender, state-owned Sberbank, to refinance debts and also took on a syndicated loan from a series of foreign lenders including JP Morgan Chase, Raiffeisen Zentralbank and UBS, according to Vedomosti.
Interros says the borrowing will permit it to make "the next step in the company's development program and finance major investment projects."
Vedomosti quotes sources in Interros saying that the company has so far only borrowed $1 billion from Sberbank. The paper speculates that Potanin is accumulating a war chest in order to buy out the 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel held by RusAl, the world's largest aluminum company.
The two sides have been locked in an increasingly acrimonious struggle for control of Norilsk Nickel, in which Potanin's Interros also holds 25%.
On Wednesday, RusAl filed a complaint with the London Court of International Arbitration against Interros over a disputed Norilsk Nickel June shareholders' meeting.
RusAl believes that Interros has violated an agreement that they had reached in November 2008, under which each would work to make sure that an equal number of candidates from each side would be elected to the board.
At the June AGM, RusAl failed to push through as many candidates as it planned to the board of directors and was left with three representatives there, while Interros has four.
Norilsk Nickel announced on Thursday that it will hold an extraordinary general meeting on October 21 to try to resolve the management issue.
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti)
