OREANDA-NEWS. RUSAL, SUAL Group and Glencore welcomed the today's decision by the European Commission to grant clearance for the transaction to create United Company RUSAL.

According to the press service of RUSAL, the enlarged company, which will consolidate RUSAL, SUAL and alumina assets of Glencore will be the world's leading aluminium and alumina producer.

The merger of RUSAL, SUAL and the alumina assets of Glencore was announced in October 2006. Under the terms of the merger agreement, RUSAL's shareholder will own 66% of the new company, with SUAL's shareholders owning 22% and Glencore 12%, respectively.

The combined company will own bauxite mining, alumina refinery, aluminium smelting and foil production facilities. The new company becomes the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, employing more than 110,000 people in 17 countries on five continents.

The company will account for approximately 12.5% of global aluminium and 16% of global alumina production, respectively. The annual volume of production will be approximately 4 million tonnes of aluminium and 11 million tonnes of alumina.

The unified company will include RUSAL’s following assets: Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk, Sayanogorsk Aluminium Smelters, Achinsk Alumina Plant, Nikolaev and Boksitogorsk Alumina Refineries, Friguia Alumina Plant (Guinea), Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia (Guinea), Bauxite Company of Guyana, a stake in the Queensland Alumina Refinery (Australia), Eurallumina (Italy) as well as ARMENAL, SAYANAL and a cathode plant in China.

SUAL Group will contribute Irkutsk, Urals, Kandalaksha, Bogoslovsk, Nadvoitsy, Volgograd and Volkhov Aluminium Smelters, Zaporozhye Aluminium Combine, Pikalevo Alumina Refinery, SUBR, Urals Foil, as well as Silicon, SUAL-Silicon-Ural and SUAL-PM.

Glencore will contribute the following alumina refineries: Aughinish in Ireland, Windalco and Alpart in Jamaica and Eurallumina in Italy, along with Kubikenborg Aluminium Smelter in Sweden.