Sual wants RUSAL to hold EGM, consider dividends for Jan–Sep

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (PRIME) -- Sual Partners, one of the core shareholders of Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL, has demanded that RUSAL call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the shareholders to discuss dividends for January–September, the aluminum giant said in a statement on Tuesday.

The board of directors of RUSAL will consider the request on Saturday.

The dividend policy of RUSAL says that the company pays 15% of covenant earnings before taxes, depreciation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), or its operating EBITDA plus dividends from metals giant Norilsk Nickel, per quarter if the company complies with credit agreements. Since 2017, RUSAL has paid dividends only once when it paid U.S. $304 million for January–June 2022.

In June 2023, Sual Partners CEO Oleg Fomichyov said in an interview to business daily Kommersant that Sual Partners’ calculations had shown that the minimum sum of dividends for 2022 that RUSAL could have paid without damaging its financial position and credit agreements stands at $546 million, or $244 million taking into account the interim dividends.

Also in June, Sual Partners demanded that RUSAL hold an EGM to provide information to Sual about RUSAL’s hedge deals with metals that caused losses of $378 million in 2021 and $382 million in 2022. The board of directors of RUSAL recommended that the shareholders don’t provide the documents to Sual in July.

RUSAL is controlled by core shareholder En+ Group with a 56.88% stake and Sual with a 25.52% stake, while 17.6% is in free-float.

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