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| Oleg Deripaska claimed a $60 million bonus for completion of Rusal’s IPO even though the deal has since performed poorly |
THERE ARE TWO widely held views of Rusal. One is that the world’s biggest aluminium producer is a highly leveraged company, whose fortune is tied to volatile commodity prices and whose every move seems to be dogged by controversy. Its biggest shareholder and chief executive, Oleg Deripaska, has a $4 billion lawsuit hanging over him, although the case does not directly involve Rusal. Another leading shareholder and the company’s chairman, Viktor Vekselberg, was fined a record SFr40 million ($37.5 million) in January by the Swiss authorities for violating disclosure rules when he built a stake in industrial group Oerlikon – a charge he denies and intends to challenge. The other view is that the Russian company is a well-managed, low-cost operation, with a fantastic business whose financial standing is back on track after a multi-billion dollar debt restructuring and groundbreaking IPO.
"Rusal is a victim of negative PR," says a banker close to the firm. "It’s a much better company than the media gives it credit for."