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espressostrettoon May 24, 2010 1:19am
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Russian gold unit Severstal eyes flotation
Russian gold unit Severstal eyes flotationhttps://www.thisismoney.co.uk/markets/article.html?in_article_id=505046&in_page_id=3
Russian gold unit Severstal eyes flotation
By Mark Foxwell
23 May 2010, 1:52pm
Severstal, Russia's biggest steelmaker, is holding a beauty parade of advisers to help it list its gold unit in London later this year in a move that could raise £1bn.
The firm, controlled by oligarch Alexey Mordashov, is already in talks with investment banks JPMorgan and Russia's Renaissance Capital and it will meet Deloitte this week.
Severstal, one of the few steelmakers to have gold assets in its portfolio, is taking advantage of the metal's soaring price as it finds favour with investors in troubled times.
A source close to the company said a float would help to reduce Severstal's £5.4bn debt in the short term and allow it to pursue acquisitions.
The company's gold business accounts for more than half of its earnings with an output of six tons a year. When the unit was launched in 2007, Mordashov said he would look to float it at a future date.