Russian billionaire’s ex-wife strikes deal with UAE wealth fund

The ex-wife of sanctioned Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska sold a 2.6 percent stake in a power and aluminium firm to Mubadala Investment Co.

Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund is paying about $200m for a stake in the company founded by Polina Yumasheva’s former husband, Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, people familiar with the matter said [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]

The ex-wife of sanctioned Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska sold a 2.6% stake in the power and aluminum company En+ Group International PJSC to sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Co.

Following the sale, Yumasheva’s stake in EN+ will decline to 2.58%, according to a statement on Wednesday. Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund is paying about $200 million for a stake in the company founded by Yumasheva’s former husband, people familiar with the matter said earlier.

Mubadala’s total share ownership in En+ now stands at 2.86% on a fully diluted basis, the fund said in a separate statement. The statements confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report on the deal.

“EN+ has made significant progress in recent years, and is well positioned to generate sustainable value for stakeholders,” said Faris Sohail Al Mazrui, head of Mubadala’s Russia & CIS investment program.

Yumasheva and her father Valentin Yumashev have been looking for buyers of their stakes in the group, as well as holdings owned by Deripaska’s children, since at least 2019.

Yumashev said earlier that he wasn’t selling his shares and wasn’t aware of his daughter’s plans. En+ press service declined to comment on financial details of the transaction. Yumasheva didn’t respond to attempts to contact her.

Kacy Grine, a financial adviser to several wealthy individuals in Europe and the Middle East, is advising Yumasheva on the deal, according to one of the people. A representative for Grine declined to comment.

En+ said in its annual report that former family members controlled 6.75% as of the end of December.

U.S. Sanctions

En+ was sanctioned, together with units including United Co. Rusal, by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2018 in response to Russia’s “worldwide malign activities,” which included annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

Treasury officials agreed to lift the penalties on Deripaska’s companies in January 2019 as part of an agreement that he would step back from running the businesses. The billionaire still owns about 45% of En+ shares but, under the deal, he’s only allowed to vote with 35% of the shares and the rest are controlled by independent trustees.

The OFAC has been “duly notified of the sale,” En+ said in the statement.

The deal is among the biggest in Russia for Mubadala, which has $243 billion of assets under management. It has about $2 billion in joint investments with the Kremlin-run Russian Direct Investment Fund.

En+ is listed in London and Moscow, where it has a market capitalization of 564 billion rubles ($7.8 billion), but its shares trade infrequently.

Source: Bloomberg