OREANDA-NEWS. The Board of Directors approved main terms for ending RUSNANO’s involvement in the project to create Russia’s first large-scale complex for the production of polycrystalline silicon and monosilane.

The decision on RUSNANO’s withdrawal was initially taken in December 2013, when relevant federal ministries and departments, including the Russian Ministries of Industry, Economic Development, Finance and Energy together with the Administration of Irkutsk Region and project shareholders, including RUSNANO, Sberbank and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), concluded that it would be uneconomical to continue the project and that the best solution would be bankruptcy proceedings and/or liquidation of the companies implementing the project.

However, the process of bankruptcy and/or liquidation could take up to four years and the amount received by major creditors for repayment of the debt owed to them would be insignificant due to the break-up of the project’s industrial site in the town of Usolye-Sibirskoye and the loss of asset value in the bankruptcy process.

The Usolye-Sibirskoye chemicals complex is unique in nature, incorporating various engineering facilities and infrastructure. The site has provided skilled employment, tax revenues and the transmission of power and heat from a nearby thermal power station to consumers in the town.

The Administration of Irkutsk Region in conjunction with the new investor has therefore found an alternative use for the site, which will be adapted for the implementation of a promising gas chemicals project.

In view of support for the preservation of the industrial site from project creditors, federal ministries, the Governor of Irkutsk Region and the new core investor, the RUSNANO Board has reversed its previous resolution (to institute bankruptcy proceedings and/or liquidation of the companies implementing the project), and has approved new terms for withdrawal from the project, including sale to the core investor for 176.7 million rubles of RUSNANO’s interest in the project and its claims on the project company. An appraiser’s report confirming the cost-effectiveness of RUSNANO’s withdrawal on the terms described was received in September 2014.

The Board of Directors also approved the receipt of a long-term \\$18 billion bank loan under Russian Government guarantees, which are included in the federal budget for 2014. The loan is for up to nine years and will be provided by Sberbank.