Fridman Alfa seeks to bankrupt Deripaska's builder

MOSCOW, June 30 (Reuters) - The billionaire owner of Russia's Alfa Bank [ABHDGK.UL], Mikhail Fridman, has filed a bankruptcy suit against Oleg Deripaska's building firm, court documents showed on Tuesday, adding to the troubles of the indebted businessman.

Deripaska, who amassed over $20 billion in debts in expanding his empire during Russia's boom years, is now holding painful debt restructuring talks.

Those include talks between Western lenders and the world's largest aluminum producer, UC RUSAL, controlled by Deripaska, on $7.3 billion in debts. [ID:nLA176003]

The club of 70 banks is eagerly watching news surrounding his empire.

Alfa Bank has said Deripaska's firms owe it $1 billion, although the conglomerate, known as Basel, says the debt stands at $650 million.

Fridman was even rebuked by President Dmitry Medvedev earlier this year for harassing big companies over debts. [ID:nLG661151]

He and Deripaska issued a statement later saying they were not in conflict over debt. [ID:nLH184187]

But the statement changed little in Alfa's strategy, as it has filed claims for a total of 1 billion roubles ($32.23 million) against Deripaska's building firm GlavMosStroy since the beginning of 2009.

GlavMosStroy, which is part of Deripaska's bigger GlavStroy construction conglomerate, has retaliated by filing suits asking courts to overturn credit agreements with Alfa Bank.

By filing a bankruptcy suit against GlavMosStroy, Alfa Bank joins a unit of steel major MMK (MAGN.MM) and GlavStroy's former unit Strom Holding, which are also seeking to bankrupt GlavMosStroy. ($1=31.03 roubles) (Reporting by Yulia Komleva, writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)