OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2010. Gardenstate Holdings, which has a 0.4% stake in Norilsk Nickel, is seeking to annul decisions made by the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel on September 23 (namely, the BoD decision to schedule an EGM to vote for a new BoD on 21 October), reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation. 

Gardenstate Holdings alleges unlawful actions on the part of UC RUSAL Investment Management related to the submission of documents, specifically the submission of two essentially different copies of their charter that have the same reference information (date, registration number, etc.) and which were certified by the same public notary. On this basis, Gardenstate Holdings is claiming that decisions made by the BoD of Norilsk Nickel on 23 September are invalid.

View: We believe that the probability that the court will block voting for a new BoD at Norilsk’s 21 October EGM is relatively low. Nonetheless, we see this news as slightly negative for Norilsk Nickel.

Valuation and Action:  We reiterate our BUY rating for the stock and a target price of USD220/share.