Strategic status promised for Mechel

The Government should make a list of strategic companies, for which state guarantees on loans are promised, by the beginning of February. The first contender for them was called problem company Mechel. According to the Kommersant’s information, the only thing that gives the company its inclusion into the list of strategic ones is the government assistance "manually", but this doesn’t exclude bankruptcy.

Mechel of Igor Zyuzin (together with his family he owns 67.42% stake) will be included into a new list of strategic enterprises of the Russian Federation, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said yesterday. Due to this news, ordinary and preferred shares of Mechel on the Moscow Stock Exchange increased by 28.9% and 45.75% respectively, their ADR on the New York Stock Exchange grew by 20.29% and 51.52 % respectively by 21:00 of Moscow time (capitalization makes up $488 million).