Russian oligarch asks the Russian government to return 18 billion rubles invested in DEMZ
The Russian mining and metallurgical group Mechel, Igor Zyuzin, has addressed the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak with a letter in which she asked to help her in returning 50% of the funds invested by the company in the Donetsk Electrometallurgical Plant (DEMZ). As reported by “ Vedomosti ", Mechel argues a request that an asset of 36 billion rubles was lost due to the war in eastern Ukraine.
In addition, Igor Zyuzin's enterprise asks to restructure its loans. If the money is returned, the holding undertakes to send it to pay off debts to VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank.
DEMZ belonged to the Estar group until 2009, but due to debts it passed to the investment division of Alfa-Bank - A1. Mechel purchased 100% of the Donetsk plant in December 2011 for $ 537 million payable in monthly installments until the end of 2018. The mining and metallurgical group fully paid for the DEMZ purchased in 2011 in February 2019.
After the outbreak of the war in eastern Ukraine, Mechel lost control over its assets in Donetsk. In the summer of 2016, the ORDLO authorities "nationalized" the Donetsk Electrometallurgical Plant and created the Yuzovsky Metallurgical Plant State Enterprise on its basis.