OREANDA-NEWS. RUSAL, SUAL and Glencore welcomed the decision by Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to grant clearance for the transaction to create United Company RUSAL. The enlarged company, which will consolidate RUSAL, SUAL and alumina assets of Glencore will be the world’s leading aluminium and alumina producer.

Notification of the approval was announced by FAS on February 14. As of today, clearances have been already granted by the European Commission, as well as by antimonopoly authorities of Montenegro and Turkey.

"Today's announcement by the FAS is of great significance, supporting the creation of Russia's first transnational corporation and the new leader of the global aluminium industry", said Alexander Bulygin, RUSAL's CEO. "We are now ready to round off the merger and plan to close the deal in the near future".

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.