delay has gilbertson got the money

Note : "In his opening offer, Gilbertson said that Pallinghurst is backed by a billion dollars of "equity commitments". Vekselberg is now claiming to his associates that not a penny of that will be his. "

This maybe the reason for the dealy in the scheme documentation, maybe Gilbertson needs time to scratch around for the money!


MINING FINANCE & INVESTMENT
SURVIVING RUSSIAN ALUMINIUM
Gilbertson’s retreat from Moscow – more hot than cold
The big South African prepares resourceful counterattack.

Author: John Helmer
Posted: Wednesday , 25 Apr 2007

MOSCOW -

Brian Gilbertson was the most important international executive ever to work for a Russian corporation, when he moved to Moscow in August 2004, signing on as president of Siberian Ural Aluminium (SUAL), a mining and metals company. He still is, but that's because no-one of comparable importance has followed him, either on the smooth road into Moscow, or on the bumpy one out.

The Gilbertson appointment, accompanied by published hints of a 50 million-sterling bonus, was also Victor Vekselberg's biggest catch, in his attempt to take his second-string private company to a public listing on the London Stock Exchange. Vekselberg is one of Russia's richest men; and also one of those to be found on the defendants' list in court cases alleging he had lifted someone else's assets. At the end of March, Gilbertson parted company with Vekselberg.

Behind Gilbertson's back, Vekselberg told Russians he was more than unhappy with the big South African. For one thing, Gilbertson had proved unable to generate market support for the SUAL float on which Vekselberg had been counting. Never mind that it had been President Vladimir Putin himself, who told Vekselberg last September that Vekselberg would not be allowed to take his company public by itself. Instead, Vekselberg has had to accept a 23% stake in a merger with his rival Oleg Deripaska's Russian Aluminium (Rusal). Initially, Gilbertson was slated to be the representative of that stake as non-executive chairman of the new company. Gilbertson also reportedly tried winning Deripaska over with the prospect of a takeover bid for Anglo American.

But when the Kremlin, Deripaska, and Vekselberg agreed among themselves that the chairman of the new Rusal had to be Russian, and Vekselberg himself took the seat, Gilbertson had nothing left to do in Moscow, but to claim his bonus. Vekselberg said no. Unlike several of his argumentative predecessors in the Russian aluminium business, who have ended up in hiding, in prison, or in a body bag, Gilbertson was allowed to leave in one piece.

Apparently, for Vekselberg will not corroborate the details, and Gilbertson is still biding his time before spilling the beans, the bonus was just one of several arguments between them. Another - which Vekselberg's subordinates claim to be still in negotiation with Gilbertson - concerned Gilbertson's new global investment vehicle, Pallinghurst Resources (PR). Registered on a Caribbean island, and headquartered in London, PR has already opened a cash and scrip bid to take over the West Australian multi-mineral miner, Consolidated Minerals (ConsMin). In his opening offer, Gilbertson said that Pallinghurst is backed by a billion dollars of "equity commitments". Vekselberg is now claiming to his associates that not a penny of that will be his.

A third argument, which Gilbertson's son Sean has corroborated, is over what was intended to be a profitable development of Faberge, the trademark of the royal Russian jeweller a century ago. This was put on sale last year by Unilever for $40 million. Alrosa said it wasn't worth more than $5 million. Vekselberg had in mind to buy cheap, and resell to Alrosa, cutting others into the deal proceeds, if he succeeded. But Pallinghurst jumped in first, buying Faberge for a price that has queered Vekselberg's scheme.

When he took over at SUAL, Gilbertson conceded there was much he didn't know about how Vekselberg and his associates had put together the bauxite mines, alumina refineries, and aluminium smelters which had become SUAL's assets. Gilbertson appointed his own lawyer to investigate whether any wrong had been done, especially in the case of the Volgograd Aluminium Plant, an asset which was consolidated on to SUAL's balance-sheet several months after Gilbertson took charge - and legal responsibility. For a dispossessed shareholder in that smelter had already won Russian court rulings supporting his claim to have been robbed. The Volgograd claim has since been reviewed by international lawyers, and as Vekselberg moved towards a London listing, so has the prospective jurisdiction for a hearing on the allegations.

In more promising days, it was Gilbertson who introduced Vekselberg in South Africa, and encouraged him to make promises of black empowerment cash, and a billion dollars of investment besides. Those promises landed Vekselberg a warm seat on President Thabo Mbeki's international investment advisory council. Vekselberg's wife decided that she wanted to buy the Cape wine farm and hostelry, Vrede en Lust, while her husband's involvement in funding ANC front companies has been under hot investigation for several months.