RUSAL names Hong Kong directors after IPO setback

* CEO says has "long-term strategic interest" in China * Appoints chairman of Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange * Appoints former member of Hong Kong government MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Russian aluminium giant UC RUSAL appointed two non-executive directors from Hong Kong, where bourse authorities on Monday delayed the firm's planned $2 billion share float, as it looks to boost its presence in China. The delay put Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska, RUSAL's largest shareholder and chief executive, on the back foot again after his company last week clinched a $17 billion debt restructuring deal, Russia's biggest ever. "Given UC RUSAL's long-term strategic interest in China and the wider Asian region, we have been looking for directors who have direct experience in these markets to give us advice," Deripaska said in a statement on Tuesday. RUSAL did not refer to any share listing in the statement. Barry Cheung Chun-Yuen, one of the two appointees, is chairman of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange and the Hong Kong Urban Renewal Authority. He worked for McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles and Hong Kong between 1987 and 1994. The other appointee, Elsie Leung Oi-Sie, is a qualified solicitor and a former secretary for justice and member of the executive council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. Deripaska, once ranked Russia's richest man, built RUSAL into the world's largest aluminium producer before the economic crisis wiped 60 percent off the value of the metal and left the company struggling to service its debts. RUSAL's 16-person board, chaired by tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, will rise to 17, including four independent directors, after the new appointments are complete. Leung will replace existing independent director Simon Thompson, a UC RUSAL spokeswoman said. (Reporting by Robin Paxton and Aleksandras Budrys; editing by John Stonestreet)