Russia's Alrosa offers to buy 6.54 pct in Polyus

MOSCOW, June 6 (Reuters) - Russian diamond miner Alrosa has offered to buy 6.54 percent in the country's top gold miner, Polyus Gold (PLZL.MM) PLZLq.L, at "a fair price", Polyus said on Friday.

Polyus said in a statement it had received an offer from Alrosa "to acquire, for a price stated to be equal to 'a fair price', the 12,476,401 ordinary shares in the company," representing approximately 6.54 percent of its stock.

The offer to buy the shares, currently held by Polyus's wholly-owned subsidiary, Jenington International, will expire at 6 p.m. Moscow time (1400 GMT) on Friday.

Polyus shares closed at 1,505 rouble ($63.23) per share on Russia's MICEX bourse on Thursday. The company's current market capitalisation is around $12.43 billion. Last month, Russia's Onexim group, controlled by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, offered to buy the 6.54 percent stake in Polyus, while Britain-based asset management company Kazimir offered $350 million for 2.5 percent of Polyus' shares.

In 2007, Alrosa held negotiations with Polyus to buy a blocking stake in the gold miner, but the two sides failed to agree on the terms.

Polyus, the world's fourth-largest gold company, is majority owned by billionaires Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin, who are involved in a complicated process of dividing their multi-billion dollar assets.

Previously they together owned over half of Polyus' shares. But earlier this month Prokhorov sold Potanin his half of a 7.4 percent stake they co-owned through investment vehicle KM Invest. (Reporting by Tanya Mosolova; Editing by David Cowell)