Shares of the world’s top aluminum producer,
Russia’s RUSAL, resumed trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on
Wednesday with a drop of almost 6% at open after its chairman quit,
but managed to claw back some losses later.
By 08:38 Moscow time, RUSAL, whose billionaire
chairman Viktor Vekselberg quit on Tuesday saying company
management was pushing the debt-laden firm into a crisis, was
trading 2.124% lower at HK$6. The shares were also trading below
their initial public offer price of HK$10.80.
On Tuesday, the shares were suspended in Hong
Kong and Paris following a request from the company.
RUSAL’s management is headed by billionaire Oleg
Deripaska, who owns 47.4% of the company.
Vekselberg, who has been chairing RUSAL since
the company’s inception in 2007, together with U.S. citizen of
Soviet origin Len Blavatnik owns SUAL Partners, which controls
15.8% percent of the aluminum giant.
Vekselberg’s stepping down raised the issue of
whether he and Mikhail Prokhorov, another billionaire shareholder,
could sell their stakes. The most probable buyer of 32.8% in RUSAL
is Deripaska, although analysts have said he cannot afford it.
However, Deripaska said on Tuesday he was ready
to discuss the purchase.
There is also a possibility that the shares will
be sold to the market.
“I do not rule out this development.
But RUSAL shares became almost 50% cheaper since the start of the
year, that is why it would not be good to sell the shares to such a
market,” said Metropol financial company analyst Sergei
Filchenkov.
Both Vekselberg and Prokhorov denied plans to
sell their shares.
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