Thursday, December 31, 2009

Nat Rothschild Investing in Russian Alumninum Company Rusal

Rusal Aluminum

Nat Rothschild has made a deal to be a foundational investing in the Russian aluminum company Rusal, which will go public in January 2010. Rusal is controlled at this time by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Also signing on to the deal is Paulson & Co, the American hedge fund giant headed by John Paulson; Robert Kuok, a wealthy Malaysian-Chinese; and Vnesheconombank, or VEB, the Russian state development bank.

How the deal is set up is the four investors, including Rothschild, will be guaranteed shares when the company goes public in exchange for an agreement to not sell them over a period of several months.

The major listing will be in Hong Kong, and secondarily in Paris on January 29. Rusal expects to raise about $2 billion from the offering, which represents a 10 percent stake in the company.

For the most part the reason for the float is to raise money to pay down the enormous $17 billion in debt Rusal has. Most of that came from acquiring a number of businesses not too long before commodity prices fell.

Because the deal is considered highly risky, retail investors won't be allowed to participate in the IPO. Once the deal goes forward, Rusal will be the first Russian company listed on the Hong Kong exchange.

Rusal Aluminum

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