Press-releases

Moscow, 10 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel, today requested an Extraordinary General Meeting of Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders to elect a new, expanded Board of Directors that will represent the interest of all shareholders. UC RUSAL believes the current board has demonstrated that it is incapable of acting in the interests of all shareholders, has abused corporate governance principles and presided over the destruction of significant shareholder value. Following consultations with Norilsk Nickel’s minority shareholders, UC RUSAL is proposing Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Tye Burt and James Goodwin as independent non executive directors of the new Board.

Moscow, 7 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, believes that it is necessary to issue the following clarification in light of the abrupt drop in Norilsk Nickel’s shares:

The decision of Norilsk Nickel about directing the cash of its subsidiaries to buy back Norilsk Nickel’s shares is a serious violation of corporate governance principles and minority shareholders rights.  Using the imperfections of the Russian legislation and its uncontrolled power over Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, CEO of Norilsk Nickel appointed by Vladimir Potanin, again demonstrated their absolute unwillingness to take into account the interests of other shareholders and eagerness to violate principles of corporate governance to retain full control over the company.  This looks even more cynical given the fact that Vladimir Potanin is the Chairman of the National Council for Corporate Governance in Russia.

Moscow, 22 September 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Libyan State Economic and Social Development Fund (ESDF) to create a joint venture to develop an energy and metals complex in Libya.  The agreement sets out a plan to develop an aluminium smelter with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes per year and a 1500 MW natural gas power station. 

4 September 2008, Moscow – UC RUSAL, the largest global aluminium and alumina producer, has today announced that it has developed a unique process for waste recycling. This new technology is applied at the company’s smelting operations in Bratsk (BrAZ), the largest aluminium facility in the world, and allows saving over USD 2 million every year. The new technology helps to reduce quantities of solid waste from the smelter’s operational facilities stored in the disposal area by 5,500 tonnes less of waste. 

2 September, 2008 Moscow – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, has sent a letter to the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) requesting that the FAS take relevant measures to stop LUKOIL violating antimonopoly law and hold the company to account for this breach.

22 August 2008, Moscow - UC RUSAL has voted against Interros’s proposal that Norilsk Nickel use cash funds to buy back the company’s shares. UC RUSAL has consistently advocated that funds not used in investment programmes should be distributed among all shareholders by way of a dividend. We believe that a dividend payment is the most effective form of using unallocated cash funds in the interest of all shareholders. Furthermore a dividend payment would not infringe upon the rights of minority shareholders who have no intention to sell their shares.

Moscow, 14 August 2008 – UC RUSAL, the owner of 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, announces its intention to call for an extraordinary meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders to elect a new Board of Directors and will file a demand to convene this meeting in early September.

Moscow,  13 August 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, announces today that it has filed a lawsuit with the arbitration court against LUKOIL, the primary supplier of oil coke to UC RUSAL’s facilities, for disruptions in its supply of raw materials. Since April 2008, LUKOIL has reduced the supply of oil coke to UC RUSAL’s largest aluminium smelters by almost two times and as a result has not been fulfilling its long-term contractual obligations.