Egorov, Puginski, Afanasiev & Partners, Macfarlanes, and Maitland Chambers have successfully represented UC Rusal in a dispute involving the sale of Norilsk Nickel shares by Roman Abramovich’s Crispian Investments to Vladimir Potanin’s Whiteleave Holdings.
The London Commercial Court found in favor of UC Rusal (Rusal), the world’s second largest aluminum producer, and declared the purported sale of a 3.99% stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel in February 2018 by Crispian to Whiteleave was “invalid and ineffective.”
Following a trial in May, Judge Justice Phillips ruled that the original offer to buy the shares back was not made by "a bona fide third party purchaser," excluding all parties of the shareholder agreement, as well as parties or structures acting in concert with them, from purchasing a stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel.
According to Egorov, Puginski, Afanasiev & Partners (EPAM), "the court's decision fully confirmed the validity of Rusal's objections to the purported sale."
EPAM's team was led by Chairman Dimitry Afanasiev, Partners Robin Wittering and Evgeny Raschevsky, and Counsel Andrey Mashkovtsev.
The Macfarlanes team consisted of Partners Simon Nurney and Iain Mackie, and Senior Counsel Joanna Constantis.
The Maitland Chambers team included Christopher Pymont QC, David Mumford QC, Thomas Munby and James Kinman.
