OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2010. Vladimir Potanin, the head of Interros, which holds a c.25% stake in Norilsk Nickel, said in an interview that Interros is waiting for the management of Norilsk Nickel to propose acceptable means for relinquishing its stake in OGK-3. Mr. Potanin valued Norilsk Nickel's stake in OGK-3 at USD 2.5 - USD 3bn., reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

View: Norilsk Nickel acquired its stake in OGK-3 from RAO UES in 2007 for USD 5.16bn. At the time, Norilsk had plans to spin out its utilities assets into a separate company. Subsequently, Norilsk has asserted that it wants to focus on its core business, hence it is looking to relinquish its position in OGK-3. Up to this point, however, management has yet to take any concrete steps to unload OGK-3.

In our view, Norilsk has been waiting for a more attractive valuation. If Norilsk sells its stake in OGK-3 at USD 2.5bn and receives cash, then the impact on our target price would be slightly positive (+2%). The positive side of this development is that Norilsk would be focusing more on its core business. The negative side is that it would lose a useful mechanism of currency and commodity risk mitigation. We view this news as neutral for the Norilsk at this stage.

Valuation and Action: We reiterate our BUY rating for Norilsk Nickel and a target price of USD 220/share.