Russian Aluminum has set fresh conditions for the resumption of talks with the Bureau of Public Enterprises over the purchase of Federal Government�s shares in the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria.
The Chief Executive Officer of RUSAL, Alexander Bulygin, in a statement by its media representative in Nigeria CMC Connect, said that the government should be ready to scale down the price of the enterprise and guarantee affordable power supply.
�The two areas which will occupy my mind more than any others during these discussions are the sale price and the gas supply agreement. I cannot ask RUSAL shareholders to approve an acxquiasition price which exceeds the smelter�s market value; nor will my management team conceded to operating a facility without guarantees of affordable power supply,� he said.
RUSAL is the Russian aluminum firm, which the National Council on Privatisation last week approved should be invited for negotiations over the ALSCON shares.
The invitation of Rusal follows the failure of the preferred bidder that emerged in the opening of the financial bids in June, BFI Group, to meet the payment terms of the bureau.
The BFI Group had on June 14 won the bid for ALSCON with its bid price of $410 million (about N54.53 billion).
RUSAL was, however, disqualified for presenting a conditional bid of $205 million, which it later scaled down to about $140 million, which it said was the true value based on an independent assessment of an international assets assessor.
The Russian firm had earlier in a letter to the Director General of the BPE, Dr. Julius Bala, dated April 19 2004 signed by Bulygin and one Aleh Staseu, �acting on the basis of a power of attorney� said, �The total amount of funds to be invested by RUSAL in Nigeria economy in case we take over the 77.5% shares of ALSCON will be around US$390 million consisting of cash offer of US$205 of which US$5 million up-front, and US$10 million a year over 20 years.
It said that it was aware of the terms of the Request for Proposal issued by the BPE to all potential investors that bids must be submitted free of any conditions.
It, however, stated, �Having studied the latest available information on the plant and being under the obligation to act in the best interest of our shareholders we have to bid for the shares of ALSCON under several reasonable and fair conditions�, which it hoped, �will not prevent both parties from concluding a mutually beneficial transaction�.
RUSAL in its financial bid said, �We intend to acquire at least 77.5 per cent of the outstanding shares of ALSCON subject to advance satisfaction of the conditions that include a waiver by the BPE of the requirement to pay 10 per cent of bid value within 15 days and 90 per cent within 90 days of NCP decision to select a preferred bidder.
