MOSCOW – Russian company A-Property said on Tuesday it had formally requested permission from the country's anti-monopoly regulator to buy a 100% stake in the Elga coal project owned by miner Mechel and lender Gazprombank.
The Elga mine, located in a remote region of Russia's Far East, is Mechel's biggest asset and holds one of the world's largest coking coal deposits with reserves of 2.2-billion tonnes.
Mechel, which is in talks with its creditors about restructuring $6 billion in loans, sold a 49% stake in the project in 2016 to Gazprombank, one of its main creditors, as part of a debt restructuring process.
Last week, Mechel rejected an option to buy back a stake in the mine that was triggered when A-Property first expressed an interest in the asset last year and made a surprise offer to Gazprombank.
Shares in Mechel rose 8% after A-Property's announcement. The steel and coal miner declined to comment on the request to the anti-monopoly regulator. A-Property is owned by Russian businessman Albert Avdolyan.