UC Rusal secures four key investors for IPO

HONG KONG -UC Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, has secured four key investors for its two-billion-US-dollar initial public offering in Hong Kong, a person familiar with the deal said Tuesday. The so-called cornerstone investors are Malaysian-Chinese tycoon Robert Kuok, New York hedge fund Paulson & Co., European banking family scion Nathaniel Rothschild and Russian state development bank Vneshekonombank, or VEB, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. Kuok was the founder of the Kuok Group, which runs Hong Kong-listed Kerry Properties and English-language daily the South China Morning Post. Less than a month after the share sale's future appeared in doubt, the heavily indebted metals giant has locked in the four investors ahead of its planned listing scheduled for late January, the source said. Rothschild is a friend of Rusal's Chief Executive Oleg Deripaska, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The newswire has also reported that asset manager BlackRock and Los Angeles-based Capital Group are mulling the purchase of Rusal shares. Russian business newspaper Vedomosti has said the China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund, plans to join the IPO. Rusal, aiming to become the first Russian company to go public in Hong Kong, said early this month that it had reached a deal with creditors to restructure its 16.8-billion-US-dollar debt. The company racked up the debt after metals prices tumbled during the global financial crisis last year. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange gave the green light to the listing after delaying their decision several times since late-November over concerns about its debt restructuring. But the Securities and Futures Commission, the city's market watchdog, placed unusual restrictions on private investors by insisting on a minimum entry level of one million Hong Kong dollars (128,000 US) for those wishing to buy stakes in the aluminium group's IPO, the source said. Reports said the restrictions aimed to discourage retail investors from participating in the highly complicated offering. Bank of China International Holdings, one of the IPO arrangers, valued the company at 26.7 billion US dollars and said it may post a full-year profit of 505 million US dollars this year. --AFP