The fight between Norilsk Nickel and Rusal has entered a new round.
Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest nickel producer, announced plans on Wednesday to spend as much as $4.5 billion to buy back shares during the next year — after the Tuesday deadline passed on its bid acquire the 25 percent of the company owned by Rusal, the largest producer of aluminum and alumina.
“Norilsk Nickel is determined to deliver value to its shareholders,” Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, the company’s general director, said in a statement. “We believe that Norilsk Nickel offers a great potential to its investors.”
Rusal released its own statement on Wednesday, calling the move “yet another manifestation of gross corporate blackmail.”
Norilsk had offered $12 billion for Rusal’s stake, with the possibility of raising the price. But Rusal has remained firm, saying “that its stake is a strategic investment, and that the company does not intend to sell it.”
It is the latest development in the continuing dispute between two Russian oligarchs. Oleg V. Deripaska, chief executive of Rusal, has said for months that his company’s stake in Norilsk is not for sale.
His rival, Vladimir Potanin of Interros, a Russian holding company, also owns 25 percent of Norilsk. This summer, Mr. Deripaska claimed that Mr. Potanin had rigged the most recent board elections at Norilsk Nickel, essentially giving Interros control.
Meanwhile, the vitriol continues. In its statement on Wednesday, Rusal called Norilsk’s buyout efforts “an attempt to buy off Rusal as an awkward shareholder who, against the will of the management of Norilsk Nickel and Interros, actively supports actions aimed at achieving a real, not imaginary, increased value of the company.”
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