Russian platinum miner Norilsk has announced that it is to buy back five per cent of its shares from shareholders.

The company has revealed that it has reached an agreement with shareholders to take back five per cent of its shares for a reduced amount in a deal worth $698 million.

Denis Morozov, Norilsk’s deputy general director, told Reuters: "Some companies controlled by the Interros group have sold part of their stakes."

While Mr Morozov declined to elaborate any further on the terms of the deal, analyst Slava Smolyaninov of URALSIB investment bank suggested that Norilsk chief executive Mikhail Prokhorov and president of parent group Interros, Vladimir Potanin, could have sold some of their stakes in the firm.

Mr Smolyaninov explained that the deal could have been done by the two chiefs as a "quick way to receive cash without sending the market tumbling down by injecting a large number of Norilsk shares in it".

In November it was claimed that Mr Potanin was planning to sell off Norilsk to state-owned diamond firm Alrosa, although these rumours have since subsided.


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