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Rusal takes a step closer to Norilsk fusion

Oleg Deripaska, owner of Russian aluminium producer United Company Rusal, yesterday passed a milestone on the road to building a Russian national champion in the mining and metals industry with the purchase of a 25 per cent stake in Norilsk Nickel.

He bought the shares from Mikhail Prokhorov, the co-owner of Norilsk, in return for cash and Rusal shares following weeks of stalemate in which Mr Prokhorov and erstwhile business partner Vladimir Potanin considered a rival deal with Metalloinvest, the steel and iron-ore group owned by Alisher Usmanov.

A person close to Norilsk said yesterday the group was still in talks with Mr Usmanov about its options.

One person familiar with the deal said Rusal had agreed to increase the stake Mr Prokhorov would receive in Rusal from 11 to 14 per cent in order to get the deal done. Rusal also threatened Mr Prokhorov with legal action if he did not sell his stake by the end of April, as agreed in November.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e05d29e-1260-11dd-9b49-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1