FACTBOX-UC RUSAL agrees $16.8 bln debt deal, looks to IPO

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russian aluminium group United Company RUSAL reached agreement to refinance $16.8 billion of loans in Russia's biggest ever debt restructuring and can now proceed with a $2 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Paris. Here are some facts and figures about the company, updated to include new ownership structure post the restructuring: WHAT IS UC RUSAL? UC RUSAL is the world's biggest aluminium producer with an output of 4.4 million tonnes in 2008, or 11 percent of the global market. It was formed in March 2007 via the combination of three separate entities: RUSAL, SUAL and a subsidiary of Swiss commodities trader Glencore. It leads U.S. group Alcoa , Rio Tinto unit Alcan and Chinese state-owned Chinalco in the top ranks of producers. UC RUSAL's operations are chiefly in Russia but it also has assets in 18 other countries, including Jamaica, Ireland, Guinea and Australia. The company has over 75,000 employees worldwide. WHO OWNS IT? The original RUSAL was owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska, formerly Russia's richest man, and post the debt restructuring he controls around 53.3 percent of the enlarged group. Shareholders in fellow Russian aluminium producer SUAL, led by Victor Vekselberg, own around 17.8 percent, while Glencore has just under 10 percent. The fourth major shareholder is ONEXIM, the investment vehicle of Russian magnate Mikhail Prokhorov. ONEXIM agreed to take 14 percent of RUSAL in lieu of money owed for a stake in nickel miner Norilsk Nickel, which it sold RUSAL near the top of the market last year. Prokhorov, currently Russia's richest man and the owner of U.S. NBA basketball team the New Jersey Nets, is owed around $2.8 billion by the company and agreed to increase his stake to 19 percent as part of the restructuring. The stakes are likely to change once again if UC RUSAL achieves its next goal of a $2 billion stock-market flotation in Hong Kong and Paris. HOW BIG ARE ITS DEBTS? UC RUSAL has racked up debt of $16.8 billion, including a $7.4 billion chunk owed to over 70 international banks. Although information on its finances has been kept private, media reports have said the group is billions of dollars in the red after the global economic crisis sent industrial demand and prices of aluminium tumbling. Russian state bank VEB is the biggest single creditor, owed $4.5 billion, while other Russian banks are owed $2 billion between them and Prokhorov $2.8 billion. UC RUSAL has agreed to pay $5 billion of the debt to all lenders by the fourth quarter of 2013. Sources: Reuters, RUSAL website. (Compiling by John Bowker; Editing by David Holmes)