For the past few years, Vladimir Potanin’s Interros has exercised almost total control of Norilsk Nickel. Today the company is demonstrating poor production and financial performance as a result of Vladimir Potanin’s management policy and lack of interest in the company’s development. We believed that this situation would change after the Annual General Meeting and election of the new Board of Directors in June this year. Unfortunately, this did not happen and control of Norilsk Nickel is still concentrated in the hands of Vladimir Potanin.

Last week, it was made public that Vladimir Potanin intends to replace the CEO and appoint to this position Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, who until recently was the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia.  This will be the second change of CEO in the past month.  UC RUSAL believes that the practice of frequently replacing the CEO and appointing people who have nothing to do with the metals and mining sector or any experience of managing a large industrial company, which is publicly traded on international stock markets, contradicts the principles of corporate governance and inflicts severe economic and reputational damage on the company and its shareholders.  Moreover, the reasons and goals for the appointment planned by Vladimir Potanin are not clear.

UC RUSAL will therefore vote against Vladimir Strzhalkovsky’s candidacy to the position of Norilsk Nickel CEO at the upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors.

We believe that Norilsk Nickel is a company with tremendous potential.  This can be realised in full only when, at an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders, for which UC RUSAL has been arguing, an extended Board of Directors is elected and truly independent directors are part of it and an independent Chairman heads the Board.  Such a Board will make efforts to provide for the dynamic development of the company, grow its capitalisation in the interests of all its shareholders, including by appointing to the CEO position a highly professional expert of international standing.  We also believe it is necessary to conduct a detailed inspection of the shareholding structure of Norilsk Nickel, particularly the fact that Interros owns a stake exceeding 30%, to investigate possible violations of Russian Federation legislation, and to protect the rights of minority shareholders. 

About UC RUSAL

United Company RUSAL (www.rusal.com) is the global leader in the aluminium industry, accounting for approximately 12% and 15% of global production of aluminium and alumina respectively. The company was founded in March 2007 through the merger of RUSAL, SUAL, and the alumina assets of Glencore. United Company RUSAL employs 100,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents. UC RUSAL owns a 25% stake plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel.