Barry Cheung replaces Vekselberg on Rusal board
MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - Barry Cheung, independent director and chairman of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange Ltd, has been elected chairman of the board of directors at aluminum giant UC Rusal in place of Viktor Vekselberg, who resigned earlier this week, the company said.
On Monday evening, Vekselberg - a co-owner of Sual Partners, which owns 15.8% of the stock in Rusal - announced he was stepping down as chairman of the board of directors and leaving the board due to disagreement with the actions of company management headed by main beneficiary Oleg Deripaska.
On Wednesday, Deripaska suggested that the chairman's seat would likely be taken by one of the five independent directors.
"As chairman of the board of directors, Mr. Cheung - an independent Rusal director since 2009 - will be responsible for working up a strategy for company growth as a global corporation, particularly on the markets of China and other Asian countries, and will also continue to upgrade the system for company corporate guidance," the company said.
Rusal said Maxim Goldman, Renova's director for strategic projects, would replace Vekselberg on the board.
Also, Maxim Sokov, Rusal's strategic director, replaced Tatyana Soina, the company's chief internal auditor, on the board. Sokov is one of two Rusal representatives on the board of MMC Norilsk Nickel .
Rusal also said its board decided to conduct a comprehensive review of corporate governance with the results to be presented at the board meeting in April 2012. In addition to that, in order to bring a number of independent directors at the Board to one third, the Company will start a search for new INEDs with a help of an international executive search firm.
Deripaska's holding En+ is a shareholder in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where Rusal held its IPO in early 2010. En+ acquired 10% of the exchange's stock in June of 2010.
According to Rusal, in order to increase the proportion of independent directors on the board, the company will begin a search for new independent directors with the aid of an international consultant.
At present, the board of directors has seventeen members, four of whom are foreign independent directors - Cheung, Peter Nigel Kenny, Philip Lader, and Elsie Leung. Also considered an independent is the first deputy chief of Vnesheconombank (which holds around 3% of Rusal shares), Anatoly Tikhonov.
The board has made the decision to have corporate guidance system audited, the results of which audit will be submitted to a board meeting next month.
Rusal's main shareholder is Deripaska, who controls 47.4% of Rusal via En+. Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim group has 17.0%, Vekselberg's Sual Partners 15.8%, international trader Glencore 8.75%, and free float is around 10.75%.
