United Company RusAl chief executive Oleg Deripaska and Norilsk Nickel majority shareholder Vladimir Potanin have proposed the creation of a metals and mining giant based on Rusal, Norilsk Nickel, Metalloinvest, Uralkali, Raspadskaya and Russneft. Such a grand merger will however hardly be approved by federal authorities, at least if judging from yesterday’s statement from Alexei Ulyanov, the head of the service’s industry control department. According to Mr. Ulyanov, the service may approve, however, a two-way merger between Norilsk Nickel and Metalloinvest while imposing strict restrictions on their joint activities, Ulyanov said at the CIS Metals Summit, organized by the Adam Smith Institute, The Moscow Times reports.
