Putin to rescue Deripaska over $2.5bn loan

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Oligarch at heart of Tory funding row gains Kremlin support in repaying banks that backed Norilsk stake

By Mark Leftly
Sunday, 26 October 2008

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will bail out Oleg Deripaska, the oligarch at the centre of the "yachtgate" affair, with a $2.5bn (£1.6bn) loan refinancing this week.

Mr Deripaska has until the end of the month to find the money to repay the syndicate of 13 banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch, that provided a loan so that he could take a 25 per cent stake in mining giant Norilsk Nickel.

He approached Vnesheconombank (VEB), the state-owned bank where Mr Putin is chairman of the supervisory board, earlier this month to refinance the loan.

Sources close to Rusal, the aluminium group that Mr Deripaska owns, and which he used to buy the stake, said the Kremlin has confirmed that it will provide the money. A London-based banker who was involved in the original syndicate said "positive noises are coming out of the Kremlin".
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/putin-to-rescue-deripaska-over-25bn-loan-973496.html