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20.11.2017
VLADIMIR POTANIN'S INTERVIEW TO BLOOMBERG
Speaking during Norilsk Nickel’s Strategy Days in London, Vladimir Potanin said that:
  • Development of the electric-vehicle industry will lead to increasing demand for nickel and cobalt, but it won’t happen that fast.
  • Demand for palladium won’t fall as there will still be a lot of gasoline powered cars. And regulations are getting stricter.
  • Nornickel signed a deal with BASF SE this year to experiment with boosting its sales of metals to battery producers.
  • The deal with BASF SE will be a test project and, if successful, Norilsk Nickel may start production of industrially important amounts by 2020.
  • Nornickel will hold off making investments in large-scale output for electric cars while the technology is still in flux, and the company is ready to reconsider its vision as trends change. Norilsk Nickel is not a venture-capital company. It’s an industrial company and it needs to invest in winning technologies.
  • There are discussions to extend the peace deal between Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders, which is due to expire in 2022, for a further five years.
  • Embarking on the shoot out looks too expensive and would mean a major increase in Potanin’s own exposure to Nornickel. The mechanism of the shoot out could be used in the event of a «dead end» in shareholder relations, or if one shareholder had a pressing need to sell assets. «It’s a possible exit from an impossible situation», said Potanin. «I think other shareholders also see this instrument as a last refuge».

The full interview is available at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-22/russian-metals-billionaires-hope-for-peace-as-shoot-out-looms