MOSCOW, August 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Norilsk Nickel Board of Directors will meet on August 15 to vote on a buyback for shares and American depositary receipts (ADRs).
The participants in the meeting, initiated by Interros Director-General Sergei Barbashev who is a member of Norilsk Nickel Board of Directors, will discuss a buyback of ADRs at the price determined on the basis of the offer made to RUSAL.
In April 2011, Norilsk Nickel’s subsidiary Corbiere Holdings completed a buyback of Norilsk Nickel shares and ADRs by purchasing 6.85 percent of shares for 3.3 billion U.S. dollars.
The company acquired 13,067,302 shares, including shares certified by ADRs, at a price of 252 U.S. dollars per share and 25.2 U.S. dollars per ADR.
Interros (one of Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders) offered to buy RUSAL’s shares in Norilsk Nickel for 9 billion U.S. dollars.
Norilsk Nickel also offered to buy 25 percent of its shares from RUSAL for 12 billion U.S. dollars, but then changed it offer to 20 percent of shares for 12.8 billion roubles. RUSAL rejected all offers.
While negotiating the purchase of its shares from RUSAL, Norilsk Nickel started buying back its shares. In the meantime, Norilsk Nikel ADRs worth about 8 percent of equity capital were sold to oil trader Trafigura. RUSAL challenged these transactions in court, but the court ruling was later cancelled.
According to the company, Norilsk Nickel’s production facilities are located on three continents and in five countries: Russia, Australia, Botswana, Finland, and South Africa.
The main Russian production units are vertically integrated and include the Polar Division and the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company.
The Group also includes the Gipronickel Institute, a research and development facility located in Saint Petersburg, with branches in the cities of Norilsk and Monchegorsk; Norilsk Process Technology, a research and development facility in Australia.
Norilsk Nickel has its own global network of representative and sales offices in Russia, the UK, China, USA and Switzerland.
In Russia, the Company’s shares are traded on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and the Russian Trading System (RTS). The ADRs of the Company’s shares are traded over-the-counter (OTC) in the United States, on the electronic International Order Book Unlisted section of the London Stock Exchange and on the Freiverkehr (OTC-section) of the Berlin-Bremen Stock Exchange. As a result of the share split, the Company’s shares convert into ADRs at a ration 1:10 effective since February 19, 2008.