OREANDA-NEWS. October 2, 2009. Basic Element's corporate finance director Andrey Yashchenko today set out the current status of debts to Alfa Bank and the progress of restructuring talks, saying Basic Element were concerned about the bank's "true intentions" after it filed two bankruptcy suits against UC Rusal at the end of last week.

In interviews with RIA Novosti and Interfax, Mr Yashchenko said the Basic Element portfolio of companies owed Alfa Bank a total of USD 432 million, with En+ accounting for USD 120 million, GAZ Group - USD 110 million, Glavstroy - USD 66 million, BaselCement - USD  31 million, Continental Management - USD 42 milion, SMR - USD 22 million, RUSAL - USD 18 million, Transstroy - USD 8 million, and other companies - USD 15 million.

Mr Yashchenko said the companies had already paid USD 360 million to the bank in 2009, including the USD 85.9 million on Thursday to redeem the debts of the Krasnoyarsk smelter and Siberian Ural Aluminum Company.

Mr Yashchenko also said that Alfa Bank had insisted that Basic Element pledge some of its assets to secure the loan, adding that they had expressed a specific interest in Ingosstrach and Transstroy. However, Mr Yashchenko told the outlets "each of these assets is worth more than total debt of our companies. Besides, the Basic Element portfolio companies that owe money to Alfa Bank have other shareholders, and it would be strange if we pay debts of these companies ourselves. We decided that it is unreasonable." Mr Yashchenko also said Basic Element were uncertain of the "true intentions" of Alfa Bank, commenting "we pay off our debts and at the same time Alfa Bank is saying that it is going to buy our debt obligations from the third parties. This raises questions over the bank's true intentions."

Mr Yashchenko said Basic Element had been very close to signing a deal on restructuring the debt with Alfa Bank and were disappointed to learn that they had filed bankruptcy suits against two units on Thursday last week. Mr Yashchenko said "there were only four minor areas of disagreement between us. Alfa Bank called them purely technical. Although we don't think they were technical, we still believe that we could come to an agreement. We were very disappointed to know on Thursday that Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy suits against our two units. It seemed to us that we will sign an agreement in a couple of days."