Billionaire’s 20-Year-Old Son May Lead $5 Billion Polyus Bid – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – September 1, 2015)

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Suleiman Kerimov’s son, a university student in Moscow, may lead a $5.4 billion bid to take Russia’s largest gold producer Polyus Gold International Ltd. private.

Wandle Holdings Ltd. and its Sacturino Ltd. unit, controlled by the billionaire’s son Said Kerimov, are considering an offer to buy the shares of the gold miner they don’t already own for $2.97 each, Sacturino said in a statement late Wednesday. The family already owns about 40 percent of the company, so a fully subscribed offer would value the deal at $5.4 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Polyus shares rose as much as 6.9 percent and were up 3.7 percent at 196.50 pence ($3) as of 12:24 p.m. in London. The stock has climbed 8.3 percent this year, the third-best performer on the 10-company Bloomberg Europe 500 Metals and Mining Index, which dropped 26 percent over the same period.

Kerimov senior, 49, Russia’s 18th richest man with an estimated fortune of $4.9 billion, is a member of the Federation Council, the nation’s upper chamber of the parliament.That obliges the billionaire to distance himself from his business empire and hold his assets in a foundation. A spokesman for Polyus Gold declined to comment.

London Listing

“Kerimov senior is a lawmaker and isn’t allowed to do business by himself, so it’s done through the son, which is technical,” said Kirill Chuyko, chief of equity research at BCS Financial Group. “In theory, it could have been done even through the house maid.”

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