Debt-laden Deripaska near to sealing rescue

Embattled Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska was today close to securing a deal to save his businesses from collapsing under the weight of $20 billion (£12.6 billion) of debts.

Deripaska, whose LDV van group came close to collapse and who was at the centre of a political storm after entertaining Peter Mandelson and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne on his yacht, has been hammered by the financial crisis, having borrowed heavily to expand his empire.

He was among the first of Russia's tycoons to lose assets to creditors and sought a $4.5 billion bailout loan from the Kremlin. "We're now in the position where, except for a few difficult situations, we think the businesses will make it," Olga Zinovieva, first deputy chief executive of Deripaska's Basic Element holding company, was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.

"The acute phase is past, and if we sign binding documents with creditors, the situation will be normalised and the businesses will get through it calmly."

Deripaska's companies account for just under 2% of Russia's gross domestic product and he employs hundreds of thousands of workers in the country at a time of rising unemployment.

He has been deemed by the Kremlin and many western creditors as being too big to fail.