Moscow, 14 August 2008 – UC RUSAL, the owner of 25% plus two shares of Norilsk Nickel, announces its intention to call for an extraordinary meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders to elect a new Board of Directors and will file a demand to convene this meeting in early September.


UC RUSAL believes that the current Board, fully controlled by Interros, is incapable of reversing a slide in Norilsk Nickel’s market value.љ


UC RUSAL is completing consultations with Norilsk Nickel minority shareholders held over the last two months to discuss the current situation at the company and the creation of a 13-member Board as approved at the Annual General Meeting on 30 June 2008. As a result of these meetings, UC RUSAL intends to file an application in early September to call for an extraordinary meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders to elect truly independent directors to a new enlarged Board.


UC RUSAL is soliciting proposals from minority shareholders for candidates for independent directors and an independent Chairman for the Board of Directors to ensure that the new Board is not controlled by either of the two largest shareholders.


To address the complete deterioration of Norilsk Nickel’s corporate governance standards under the current Interros-dominated Board and to attempt to reverse the decline in Norilsk Nickel’s management and operations, UC RUSAL proposes the following plan of action for the new Board:


1. The establishment of a nomination committee to launch a structured search and appointment of professional managers for the positions of CEO and other top executives


2. Development of an operational improvement programme to prevent further production decline and to cut costs


3. Development of an environmental programme


4. A review of the capital expenditure programme to identify value-enhancing development opportunities


5. Payment of all accumulated cash not used in the investment programmes in the form of an interim dividend and adoption of a new dividend policy taking into account Norilsk Nickel’s capital expenditure and liquidity requirements.



UC RUSAL will announce a list of nominees for the new Board of Directors after filing its demand to convene this extraordinary meeting of Norilsk Nickel shareholders.


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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 sells its products in 70 countries worldwide and employs 100,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents.


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