Oleg Deripaska's companies asked Washington for a postponement

Those who fall under American sanctions UC Rusal and En + plan to submit to the US Treasury by mid-summer a plan that will give the agency grounds to lift restrictions against companies.
01.06.2018
Vedomosti
Origin source
This was reported by Reuters independent chairman of the board of directors of En + (controlling shareholder of UC Rusal) Gregory Barker.

The world's second-largest producer of aluminum UC Rusal, energy-metallurgical En + and other companies of Oleg Deripaska, as well as the billionaire himself, in early April came under the sanctions of the US Treasury. Inclusion of companies in the sanction list means that all American counterparties are prohibited from any economic ties with them. In addition, any non-US persons who commit "significant transactions" with companies and foreign financial institutions that engage in "significant financial transactions" may enter into secondary sanctions.

The US Treasury extended until October 23 the period during which UC RUSAL's contractors need to complete contracts with the company, and pushed the sale of the assets of the sanctions companies until June 6. Barker told Reuters that he asked the US Treasury to extend the validity of the license, which gives the right to carry out transactions with the company's shares, from June to September. According to him, this will give the company time "to collect the remaining elements in order to present the final proposal to the US authorities."

 The US Ministry of Finance in late April said that sanctions against UC Rusal and En + could be canceled if Deripaska refused to control the companies. Deripaska controls UC Rusal through En +, which owns 48.1% of the aluminum company. Under the terms of the shareholder agreement, En + is considered a controlling shareholder, while its share in UC Rusal exceeds 40%. Deripaska is going to terminate the agreement, sources told Vedomosti.

In addition, Deripaska "agreed in principle" to reduce its stake in En + from the current 66% to less than 50% - this provides a "Barker plan" to save the company from sanctions. Sources Bloomberg reported that the US Treasury to cancel sanctions against En + demanded a reduction in the share of Deripaska to 40%.

 Reuters notes that the discussion about reducing the share of Deripaska is complicated by the fact that his wife Polina controls 5.8% of En +.

According to the agency, Barker is going to meet on Thursday with the Irish Minister of Business, Heather Humphreys. "The Irish government is very active in cooperating with UC Rusal in order to find ways to mitigate the consequences of sanctions," Barker said. UC Rusal owns the largest in Europe, the Irish alumina refinery Aughinish Alumina. In addition to the aluminum market, sanctions against UC Rusal significantly impacted the alumina market, the Financial Times wrote. The fate of the Irish plant UC Rusal, which supplies alumina to European aluminum plants, was in question, which caused concern of the government.

Business

Previous Article
Next article