Otkritie Bank has acquired a stake in VPC’s Talitsky potash project. The acquisition was made via Closed-end Mutual Fund Otrkitie, a member of Otkritie Bank. Having sold 10.1% of VPC shares to the Bank, Acron Group reduced its stake in the project to 50%+1 share.

 

The other Talitsky stakeholder is Sberbank Investment, which holds two stakes of 20% and 19.9%. Earlier this month, Sberbank Investment decided to extend the term of its 19.9% stake in the Group’s potash project.

 

Acron Board of Directors Chairman Alexander Popov commented on the acquisition, “We are happy that Otkritie Bank has joined our major potash project. Acron Group has been focused on strengthening long-term cooperation with its financial partners. We would like to thank our partners for their participation in the project, which adds flexibility to the project in the current macroeconomic environment.

 

We have entered the final stage of building vertical shafts. With the banks’ support, in the future, we will be able to proceed to constructing the ground facilities and the underground mine, taking into account market conditions and needs.”

 

Viktor Nikolaev, member of the Management Board, Corporate and Investment Block Executive at Otkritie Bank, “For us, this acquisition is an attractive investment opportunity, the first step towards implementation by our partner, Acron Group, of a large investment project that will help create an export-oriented production facility with an annual extraction volume of 7.5 million tonnes of ore and production capacity of 2.0 million tonnes of potassium chloride per year.”