Potash producer Urakali announced Friday that Russian tycoon Alexander Nesis has sold his 5.1% stake in the company to fund new projects in railways transportation.

Nesis, who is currently worth $3.3 billion according to Forbes magazine, owns a majority stake in Polymetal, a Russian precious metals mining company. The Russian's ITC group has assets in various industries including engineering and finance totaling to around US$8 billion.

The tycoon had acquired an initial 13.2% stake in the company alongside fellow billionaires Filaret Galchev and Suleiman Kerimov. All told the acquisition totaled to a 53.2% shareholding in Uralkali.

Nesis has been slowly reducing his stake over the past year, the amount falling from 9.9% in August 2012 to just 5.1% by April. The stake was worth US$1 billion at the time according to a Eurobond prospectus.

The shares were divided and sold in several smaller stakes, Uralkali announced in a statement but did not disclose the name of the buyers.
Kerimov remains Uralkali's largest shareholder at the moment with his 17.2% stake.