Rusal minorities don't want to let Deripaska stand down as CEO
MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) - Minority shareholders in aluminum giant UC Rusal don't want Oleg Deripaska to stand down as the company's CEO.
"The shareholders don't want to let me go, they're used to me," Deripaska said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel. Deripaska himself controls 48% of the company, so he was referring to minority shareholders.
Two sources close to Rusal's shareholders told Interfax on September 17 that Rusal's first deputy CEO of Russian aluminum company UC Rusal, Vladislav Soloviev, could replace Oleg Deripaska as the company's CEO. If this takes place, Deripaska will become Rusal's president, one of the sources said.
Rusal is not commenting on this information.
A similar move was carried out in Deripaska's holding company En+, when Deripaska became both president and CEO after Artem Volynets stepped down from his position as CEO in the summer of 2013. Maxim Sokov became his first deputy. In April of this year, Sokov was named the general director of the company, while Deripaska became president.
Deripaska has relinquished day-to-day management of the aluminum business before: Alexander Bulygin headed Rusal for over five years before the founder of Rusal returned to the position in early 2009, a year before the company's IPO in Hong Kong.
Soloviev is Deripaska's only first deputy at Rusal and is actually in charge of a wide range of functions at the company. He takes active participation in the long-term negotiation process that takes place with lenders on refinancing Rusal's debt. The deal was finalized in August.
Soloviev became first deputy CEO of Rusal in April 2010 and before that was head of En+ in 2008-2010. Between 2001 and 2008, the manager headed the aluminum company's financial division. Before coming to Rusal, Soloviev was advisor to the minister of taxes and duties and also held various management positions at UNICON/MS Consulting.
Soloviev is on the board of directors at Rusal, En+ and OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel , in which the company controls 27.8% of shares.
Rusal was established in 2007 after the merger of Rusal, Sual, and Swiss trader Glencore's alumina assets. The company's largest shareholder is Deripaska Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group owns 17% of its shares, Sual Partners holds 15.8%, and Glencore has 8.75%. Free float is around 10%.
