Rusal chief steps down ahead of Norilsk scramble

Russian aluminium gi founder Oleg Deripaska would step down from his business empire as it prepares for a multi-billion-dollar “shoot-out” for ownership of the country’s biggest miner.

Deripaska, who was among wealth in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, will make way for CEO Vladislav Soloviev to take up the role of president on March 15.

Soloviev will be replaced by Alexandra Bouriko, who will become Russian metals group.

to go head-to-head with Vladimir Potanin’s Interros in an ownership wrangle over mining company Norilsk Nickel.

Rusal will seek approval from take part in an auction that will eventually decide which oligarch would buy out the other’s stake in the world’s biggest producer of nickel and palladium.

The news came as the metals giant revealed adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation in October-December rose to $586 million, up 42.2 percent from the previous year.

Results were boosted by rising aluminium prices as well as global demand “amid coordinated economic growth in major regions of the world, including China, Europe and North America,” Rusal said in a statement.

But quarterly net profit was down 31.8 percent at $440 million owing to gains in the previous year

The management shake-up also came after Deripaska was put on a US government report last month oligarchs “as determined by their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth”.

The report insisted it was “not a sanctions list” but Russian President Vladimir Putin nonetheless denounced it at the time.