OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2009. The French bank Natixis purchased from Deutsche Bank part of the debt of Alexander Zanadvorov, for which a 20% stake in Seventh Continent is collateral. This puts the bank in control of c40% of SCON shares, Kommersant wired. Kommersant does not exclude that the French bank may begin negotiations with the shareholders of the Russian retailer in favor of some strategic investor, such as Carrefour, which might be interested in acquiring a majority stake in SCON, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE FC.

View: We view this news as neutral for SCON at the present time, but expect to see the sale of Seventh Continent sooner rather than later. With a 40% stake in SCON under its control, Natixis has strengthened its negotiating power. In November 2007, Mr Zanadvorov pledged a 75% stake in SCON as collateral for a US750m loan from Deutsche Bank. Last year, there was a margin call on this loan. Since then, the two parties have been trying to find buyers for the pledged assets.

Valuation: SCON currently trades at 10.4x EV/EBITDA 09E.