Negotiations on the purchase are being conducted by three members of the Forbes list at once - Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Mikhail Gutseriev and Vladimir Kogan

For more than a month now, the name “Uralkali” has not left the front pages. The company found itself at the center of a high-profile international scandal, its CEO Vladislav Baumgertner was arrested by the KGB of Belarus, and the main shareholder Suleiman Kerimov (No. 20 in the Russian Forbes, fortune - $7.1 billion), according to the Belarusian side, is already on the Interpol wanted list. As Forbes has learned, other members of the list of the richest businessmen are already rushing to take advantage of this situation.

Co-owner of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov (No. 23, $6.7 billion) and founder of RussNeft Mikhail Gutseriev (No. 34, $3 billion), as well as former banker and head of Gosstroy Vladimir Kogan, propose to buy out Kerimov’s share in Uralkali. (No. 111, $0.95 billion). A high-ranking government source and a top manager of one of Kerimov’s creditor banks told Forbes about this. “All three businessmen would like to buy out Kerimov’s share, and Kogan even hints that he is acting on behalf of President Vladimir Putin,” confirms a source close to Uralkali. Previously, a source close to Kerimov, in a conversation with Forbes, did not deny that the businessman could sell his stake if the conditions turned out to be favorable. It was not possible to contact Kerimov himself on Sunday. A representative of his company Nafta-Moscow declined to comment.

According to all three Forbes interlocutors, there are no agreements on the deal. “If they were formalized, we would know about it, because part of the Uralkali shares from Kerimov’s stake are pledged to us,” says the banker. He estimates the amount of the potential transaction at $4 billion and says that it is quite problematic to quickly attract that much money to buyers.

At the end of Friday, the capitalization of Uralkali on the MICEX was $14.7 billion, on the LSE - $14.3 billion. Based on this, the value of 21.75% of the company's shares controlled by Kerimov (Uralkali data as of July 12) is $3, 1-3.2 billion. Kerimov’s shares are pledged against loans from a number of banks, including Sberbank and VTB, sources say (in May, Uralkali disclosed that Sberbank CIB Cyprus Limited, as a result of repo transactions with the company’s shareholders, received 10. 48% of its shares). Forbes sources do not specify the amount of debt on these loans.

Since 2010, Kerimov, according to Forbes calculations, could have spent about $3 billion on transactions with Uralkali shares. Almost everything was bought on credit, and now Kerimov’s main goal is to pay off creditors and earn “at least $1-1 from this story on top.” 5 billion,” says a businessman’s acquaintance.

Yevtushenkov and Gutseriev act jointly in negotiations with Kerimov, says a source close to Uralkali. He does not rule out the appearance of other partners in the deal if agreements are reached. Businessmen already have experience in joint transactions. In 2010, Yevtushenkov helped Gutseriev return to Russia (a criminal case was opened against Gutseriev), after which he bought 49% of the shares of Russneft from him for $100 million (this year Sistema sold this stake for $1.2 billion) . Both Yevtushenkov and Gutseriev have long been interested in Uralkali. Sistema was called one of the contenders for the asset back in 2010, when a controlling stake in the company was put up for sale by the former owner of Uralkali, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Gutseriev has also been eyeing the potash industry for a long time, and he also has good connections with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a government official says. According to him, Gutseriev recently met with Lukashenko and discussed the current conflict between Uralkali and Belaruskali, and even earlier made proposals regarding the purchase of Belaruskali itself. It was not possible to contact Gutseriev; a source close to him claims that negotiations on Uralkali are not ongoing.

Until the end of July, Uralkali and Belaruskali traded potash fertilizers for export through the joint Belarusian Potash Company (BPC). Due to a conflict over sales volumes through BPC, Uralkali decided to stop exports through this trader. For the global potash fertilizer market, the news was a real revolution, because before this the market was controlled by two traders - BPC and the Canadian cartel Canpotex (which included PotashCorp, Agrium and Mosaic). After Uralkali left BPC, shares of potash fertilizer producers collapsed, and Belarus launched a real war against the managers of Uralkali and Kerimov.

The appearance of Vladimir Kogan among the contenders for the purchase of Uralkali came as a surprise. “Actually, initially he came to Kerimov with an offer to buy the PIK construction company from him, and then he found out that there was a more interesting asset,” says an acquaintance of Kerimov.

Kogan is one of the most private members of the Forbes list. In the 1990s, he was the head of the St. Petersburg Banking House holding, which included several banks. Among them was the Industrial Construction Bank, whose client and shareholder was Vladimir Putin . In the mid-2000s, Kogan and his partner David Traktovenko began to leave the banking business: 75% of Promstroybank was bought by VTB for $577 million in 2004-2005. At the same time, Kogan sold a controlling stake in the Zenit football club to Gazprom structures. After all these deals, the businessman left to work in government. From 2005 to 2011, he oversaw the construction of flood protection structures in St. Petersburg within the structure of Rosstroi and the Ministry of Regional Development; in 2012, from July to December, he headed the State Construction Committee and was Deputy Minister of Regional Development. He never left the business. In 2010, Kogan’s structures bought out one of the contractors for the construction of the Moscow metro, Mosmetrostroy, at a privatization auction for 7.6 billion rubles, but the asset was soon sold to the company’s managers.

Now Kogan owns the Neftegazindustriya company purchased from Oleg Deripaska (the main asset is the Afipsky Oil Refinery). Kogan was also called a contender for the purchase of Vozrozhdenie Bank, a stake in the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port and Domodedovo Airport (not a single deal took place). A source close to the businessman confirmed to Forbes that he is actively negotiating the purchase of Uralkali and is already close to the goal.

Representatives of all other participants in the negotiations, including Sberbank and VTB, declined to comment.

Other major shareholders of Uralkali are now Kerimov’s partners - Anatoly Skurov (4.8%) and Filaret Galchev (7); another 12.5% of the company’s shares belong to the offshore Wadge Holdings. Its beneficiaries are the same Kerimov, Skurov and Galchev. In 2012, Wadge Holdings issued bonds convertible into 12.5% of Uralkali shares. The securities expired in 2014 and were issued in favor of the Chinese fund Chengdong Investment Corporation. According to several investment bankers who follow Uralkali, the conversion has already occurred. This information could not be confirmed on Sunday evening.

Suleiman Kerimov may sell Uralkali. Who will be the new owner?