Baturina to sell her Krasnodar-based cement plants
Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and for many years Russia’s richest woman, may sell her cement plants in Krasnodar territory to Lev Kvetnoi, a former partner in Alisher Usmanov and Andrei Skoch’s metals business and the owner of Novoroscement.
Kvetnoi is in talks to acquire the assets for approximately US$200m, Vedomosti reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.
Baturina’s company, Inteco, has two cement plants in Krasnodar territory: Atakaicement and Verkhnebakansky Cement Plant, each with capacity to produce 300,000tpa of cement. Their combined production in 2010 was 558,000t. Verkhnebakansky is scheduled to complete a modernisation this fall that will boost capacity to 2.3Mta at a cost of EUR300m.
Baturina, is involved in one other cement project: construction of a plant with capacity for 4.6Mta in Tula region’s Venevsky district that was agreed with the regional administration in June 2010.
However, that project is now in doubt, especially after the local administration vowed earlier this year "to heed public opposition" to the new plant.
Inteco was one of the biggest players on the cement market until 2005, when it sold its plants for US$800m to Eurocement, now the industry leader.
Kventoi’s Novoroscement is the main supplier of cement in Krasnodar territory, which is preparing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The company includes three cement plants: Proletariy, Oktyabr and Pervomaisky.
Published under Cement News
