Yet another Russian billionaire asks Putin for government assistance
Following the billionaires Vladimir Potanin (worth $18.1 billion), Oleg Deripaska ($3.6 billion), Leonid Mikhelson ($24 billion) and Alexey Mordashov ($20.5 billion), yet another Forbes’ list member has turned to the Russian government for assistance, reports finanz.ru.
Musa Bazhaev, President of the the Alliance Group, holder of a 40% stake in Russian Platinum and co-owner of the Forte Village Resort in Sardinia, met with President Vladimir Putin on Monday in the Kremlin.
After reporting to the president on the launch of the joint Arctic Palladium project with Nornickel, with a designed capacity of 120 tons per year, promising 40 billion rubles ($630 million) in annual tax revenue, with a 53% profit margin and creating nearly 6,000 new jobs, Bazhaev explained how the project is struggling to find financing.
“Today it’s become harder to work with borrowing, there’s virtually none on the foreign market,” the businessman lamented to the president.
He added that Russian Platinum is counting on financing from Russian banks, and asked the president for an opportunity to take note of the fact that borrowing money on international markets has become almost impossible.
“We would like to be in line with general policy and keep up with the times, because business always helps, I believe, and we can always be relied on,” Bazhaev promised Putin.
He also thanked Putin “for the opportunity to speak” in Saudi Arabia as part of the presidential visit which, according to Bazhaev, caused quite a sensation.
“Together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund and VTB, we have been working to attract Middle Eastern partners to this project, on my own behalf, on behalf of Russian Platinum. We believe they are very interested in it, and they are actively ready to cooperate,” the businessman added.
The billionaire emphasized that the Arctic Palladium project is “very good, one of the best projects since the collapse of the Soviet Union”.
“We have a total of 770 million tons of ore, a mining period of 55 years, and a launch of production in 2024. The total investment is $15 billion. With ore mining of 21 million tons per year, the annual revenue will be in the region of $7 billion,” Bazhaev noted.
Furthermore, the project is in line with the president’s own wishes: it will increase the freight flow through the Northern Sea Route and significantly boost Russia’s export potential, the businessman added.
Russian Platinum is one of the world’s leading producers of platinum-group metals. The company’s assets within Russia include the Kondyor deposit (Khabarovsk Krai), Chernogorskoye deposit and the southern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit (Krasnoyarsk Krai).