According to newspaper Vedomosti, General Director of Fosagro Maksim Volkov has written a letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, where he offers the state to swop its about 20 percent stake in Apatit with a stake in the Fosagro holding. The Apatit company is part of Fosagro.
Mr. Volkov in his letter underlines that the deal will be beneficial for the state, because Fosagro today is undervalued. An IPO is planned conducted after the deal.
The deal could put a final end to the long-dragged conflict over the Apatit stake, which constituted a key part of the case against business tycoon and Yukos-owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr. Khodorkovsky and his companion Platon Lebedev was sentenced to eight years of jail for having illegally acquired the 20 percent stake in Apatit. After years of court battling, the state in 2008 managed to return the company stake.
The state’s regain of its former Apatit stake left Fosagro with 28,3 percent of the phosphate producer. Other major owners of the company are Acron and Norway’s Yara International, which share a 10 percent stake. The ownership of the remaining company shares has long been not clear. However, several reliable sources say to Vedomosti that it is Andrey Guryev, the powerful senator for Murmansk Oblast, who is the owner of the shares.
The Apatit company, located in and around the Khibiny mountains, is a cornerstone enterprise in the Kola Peninsula. Until 2005, the company was 50 percent owned by Menatep, a Yukos company.
