OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2012. UC RUSAL (SEHK: 486; Euronext: RUSAL/RUAL; Moscow Exchange: RUALR/RUALRS), the world’s largest aluminium producer, announces that the Third Court of Appeal has rejected MMC Norilsk Nickel’s appeal and upheld the decision of the Arbitration Court of Krasnoyarsk Region, dated 4 June 2012, which upheld UC RUSAL Investment Management LLC's claim (the owner of 25% plus 1 share of MMC) requesting Norilsk Nickel to provide certain information and documents regarding Norilsk Nickel’s operations.

The dispute between Norilsk Nickel and RUSAL lasted for more than a year and a half. Over this time Norilsk Nickel has used all possible legal loopholes, aimed at delaying the case in order to restrict RUSAL in its right to receive the documents requested in accordance with the law. In particular, Norilsk Nickel stated that the requested documents are confidential and will be passed onto the Company's competitors if provided to RUSAL. All these arguments have been ruled out by the court as unfounded.

The Court supported RUSAL's claim, noting the inadmissibility of the abuse of the natural shareholders' rights for information, and demanded Norilsk Nickel to provide all information requested by a shareholder necessary to oversee the company's activities as provided under the law.

The Court decision supporting RUSAL's claim proves the validity of RUSAL's position and constitutes one more step in RUSAL's long-standing battle for the improvement of Norilsk Nickel’s corporate governance.