RUSAL to maintain margin on aluminium recovery

Russia's RUSAL said on Saturday it will maintain its first quarter EBITDA margin for the full year on the back of recovering aluminium prices.

The company, the world's biggest aluminium firm, swung into the black during the first three months of the year after flirting with collapse amid heavy losses and mammoth debts in crisis-hit 2009.

Chief Executive and biggest shareholder Oleg Deripaska said the aluminium market was likely to fully recover by the end of the year after a first quarter slump. Demand for the metal, used in cars and airplanes, tends to track the global economy.

"The company believes the aluminium market MAL3 -- in contrast to a difficult quarter -- will recover by the end of the year to $2,200-2,400 （from around $1,940 now）," Deripaska told reporters at the economic forum in St Petersburg.

"This will help us achieve our planned financial performance," he added.

RUSAL's head of financial markets Oleg Mukhamedshin also said the group's $12 billion debt repayment programme was a year ahead of schedule.

"In the third quarter we will have repaid our debt to the level we should be at by end-summer 2011," he told reporters, adding that Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Appreciation and Amortisation （EBITDA） margin would be maintained.

RUSAL completed a near $17 billion debt restructuring with around 70 domestic and foreign lenders late last year, paving the way for a memorable Hong Kong IPO in January.

The stock-market float reduced Deripaska's shareholding below 50 percent, although Russia's one-time richest man continues to run the company.

Deripaska did not elaborate in detail on his other business ventures, but said he was not interested in playing a role in the future of potash miner Uralkali -- divided among four other Russian billionaires last week.

He said he thought miner Norilsk Nickel, 25 percent owned by RUSAL, should pay interim dividends based on is recent performance. Norilsk has not ruled out a payment.

And Mukhamedshin said a decision had yet to be reached on whether to go ahead with a Hong Kong IPO for Deripaska's electricity supplier En+ Power.