Deripaska’s Plan Brings Board Conflict, Loss for Li Ka-Shing
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United Co. Rusal’s Oleg Deripaska is wedded to an investment that barely covers borrowing costs, has brought management into conflict and added to losses for stockholders such as billionaire Li Ka-shing and Paulson & Co.
Deripaska, whose company today chose a new chairman after a boardroom clash, has snubbed offers of as much as $18 billion for Rusal’s 25 percent stake in OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel that could cut Rusal’s debt and restart the payment of dividends. For the founder of the world’s biggest aluminum maker such rewards take second place to the goal of creating a diversified mining company to rival Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd.