Shareholders owning 27.68% of Rusal (UC Rusal) voted against changing the company’s name to Al +, according to the results of voting at the annual meeting of shareholders, which took place on June 24. As of April 2021, the main shareholders of Rusal were En + with a controlling stake of 56.88% and Sual Partners of Viktor Vekselberg and Leonard Balavatnik with a 25.72% stake. The voting results say that the owners of 65.22% of UC Rusal, including its controlling shareholder En + (56.9%), favored the change of name to Al +.
At the same time, to make a decision, the votes of the owners of 75% + 1 share are required. Consequently, Sual Partners opposed the renaming of the company.
In the renamed company, it was supposed to leave environmentally “clean” capacities, and “dirty” factories with a large “carbon footprint” to be separated into a separate structure. At the end of May, Sual Partners opposed such a division of the business.
UC Rusal confirmed to Vedomosti that the voting at the annual meeting of shareholders also took place on the issue of changing the name as part of the amendments to the company’s charter. They also confirmed its results (65.22% “for” and 27.68% “against”). “Since amendments to the charter are adopted by a qualified majority of votes, the votes cast for the name change were not enough for the proposal to be considered approved,” explained UC Rusal. The qualified majority of the votes is 75% + 1 vote.
The company stressed that they will continue to work “in order to get the support of those shareholders who have not yet heard sufficient arguments for making a decision.” “We are confident that the new brand, the new name better reflects the achievements, goals and values of the company, and such a step meets the strategic interests of all shareholders,” concluded UC Rusal.
At the end of May, UC Rusal, founded by businessman Oleg Deripaska, announced its intention to separate high-carbon production facilities that require expensive modernization to reduce emissions into a separate group. “Net” assets will remain in the main structure, it was assumed that it will change its name to AL +, and Russian alumina assets (Achinsky, Bogoslovsky, Uralsky, Pikalevsky) and aluminum plants (Bratsk, Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Volgogradsky and Kandalaksha) should have been included in it that are involved in deliveries to countries with high environmental requirements (USA and EU members).
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