UC Rusal says committed to IPO by 2010

AUGHINISH, Ireland, Sept 25 - Russia's United Company RUSAL, the world's largest primary aluminium producer, said on Tuesday it was committed to floating its shares in London within three years. Only last week, the firm's two largest shareholders told reporters a planned initial public offering would not take place this year due to market turmoil and liquidity worries. "We are committed to undertake an IPO within three years after the deal to integrate," Vera Kurochkina, head of corporate communications told reporters visiting UC RUSAL's alumina plant in Ireland. UC RUSAL non-executive chairman Viktor Vekselberg said last week the postponement of the IPO, which had previously been mooted for November, would not affect the company's investment plans. The giant aluminium maker is the product of a merger in March 2007 of rival Russian aluminium producers RUSAL and SUAL and assets belonging to commodities trader Glencore. US RUSAL said it was not looking to buy any other companies, later clarifying that it was speaking about the alumina business. "I don't think we are interested as a company in any acquisitions or any takeovers of other companies," Pavel Ovchinnikov, director of the alumina division, told Reuters. The company said it was more efficient for them to construct new ones. He also said prices of alumina, the main raw material used to make aluminium, were trading at around $310-320 per tonne. Ovchinnikov expected them to stay at a similar level in 2008 and within a $300-350 range for the next two to three years. ROGUN DISPUTE Kurochkina added that a dispute to complete construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Tajikistan was now a matter for the Russian and Tajik governments. "As far as UC RUSAL is concerned we are still interested in participating." Tajik government officials said last month that President Imomali Rakhmon planned to scrap the $1.3 billion deal with UC RUSAL. The Rogun plant was started in Soviet times but never finished and is key to the Central Asian country's goal to become a significant regional electricity exporter. Rakhmon agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2004 that RUSAL would invest in finishing the plant's construction as well as building an aluminium plant. Talks have stalled since then due to a disagreement over construction technology.