RusHydro’s directors may mull partaking in RUSAL’s projs in Aug

NOVOBUREISKY VILLAGE, Amur Region, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- The board of directors of Russian hydropower giant RusHydro may discuss participation in projects of aluminum giant UC RUSAL in August, RusHydro CEO Nikolai Shulginov told reporters on Thursday.

“So far no decision has been made. We will submit it to the next meeting of the board in autumn. So far we’ve only held a meeting of the committee for strategy, and we defined conditions of entering the project (for construction of the Taishet Aluminum Smelter) that will not hurt RusHydro. There are many of them, more than 10. The management board is to consider them now, and later we will submit it to the board of directors,” he said.

“The management board is to meet in a few days…While the board of directors will meet some time in August, and we will discuss it then.”

Construction of the smelter with a projected annual production capacity of 750,000 tonnes of aluminum started in the Irkutsk Region in 2006, but was frozen in 2009 because of the global economic crisis. Previously, RUSAL offered hydropower giant RusHydro a 50% stake in the Taishet Aluminum Smelter in exchange for some debt of the smelter and a discount for power the hydropower giant will sell to it.

Shulginov said RusHydro may acquire a 50% stake in the Taishet Aluminum Smelter project, but it does not discuss provision of a discount to the smelter’s price for power. “They simply have historical costs that they suffered at the Taishet plant. They need to audit the costs, and then we have conditions to receive a loan from Vnesheconombank, the interest rate and so on,” he said.

RusHydro is also holding talks to sell 42.7% in Irkutsk Power Grid Company as part of participation in the Taishet Aluminum Smelter project. The counteragent under the deal will be billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska, he said.

Deripaska’s En+ Group owns 48.13% in RUSAL and will consolidate more than 94% in Irkutsk Power Grid Company after the deal.

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