Russia's largest private bank Thursday filed bankruptcy suits against two key units of UC Rusal, stepping up the pressure on the aluminium giant's embattled billionaire owner Oleg Deripaska. The suits from Alfa Bank were a fresh blow to Deripaska, who amassed a fortune in metals in the 1990s and became Russia's richest man before watching his net worth plummet in the global economic crisis.
Deripaska owns a majority stake in UC Rusal - the world's largest aluminium producer, with 90,000 employees - through his Basic Element holding company. Alfa Bank said in a statement it had filed suits for bankruptcy against the Siberian-Urals Aluminium Company (SUAL) and the giant Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter, the second largest such facility in the world. The smelter produces 27 percent of Russia's aluminium - or three percent of global output - and employs 4,700 workers, according to UC Rusal's website.
Alfa Bank said it was filing the suits over an unpaid debt of 71.2 million dollars (48.1 million euros) from the two firms. "Lengthy negotiations on the restructuring of the debts of Basic Element to Alfa Bank have not brought results," Alfa Bank deputy chairman Vladimir Tatarchuk said in the bank's statement.
"In such a situation Alfa Bank reserves the right to defend its interests in court," he added. Basic Element spokesman Sergei Babichenko declined to comment on the bankruptcy lawsuits. UC Rusal could not be reached for immediate comment.
Deripaska was formerly Russia's richest man, but his fortune has plummeted from 28.6 billion dollars in 2008 to only 3.5 billion dollars earlier this year, according to Forbes magazine. Since the global financial crisis caused metals prices to plunge and dried up credit world-wide, Deripaska has been struggling to restructure massive debts that he took on during Russia's boom years earlier this decade.
Basic Element's total debts have been estimated at some 20 billion dollars. Alfa Bank's efforts to recover debt from Deripaska have also focussed on another Basic Element asset, GAZ, Russia's second-largest car manufacturer. Just hours before the lawsuits were announced, GAZ accused Alfa Bank of blocking a deal to restructure the carmaker's 1.3-billion-dollar debt burden. GAZ said it had reached a deal with 21 creditor banks on restructuring its debts, but could not carry it out because of Alfa Bank's refusal to go along. "Alfa Bank, despite earlier agreements, is demanding special conditions for itself, effectively disrupting the restructuring process," GAZ said.
It added that Alfa Bank was blocking the deal despite the fact that the bank was owed only eight percent of GAZ's total debt. Deripaska's woes have raised alarm among Russia's leaders because of fears that his bankruptcy could leave tens of thousands of workers unemployed.
His troubles with Alfa Bank have also prompted speculation of a conflict between him and Mikhail Fridman, the bank's main shareholder and another of Russia's super-rich "oligarchs" who made vast fortunes in the 1990s. But the two men have denied the conflict, and Alfa Bank president Pyotr Aven has played down the bank's tough position, saying in an April newspaper interview that "Alfa is not a monster thirsting for blood."
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