Rusal International announced on Mar 8 that it had noticed an article published by Bloomberg on Mar 4 claiming that EN+, Rusal International's controlling shareholder, had commenced a strategic review of the company. It also noticed that En+ had issued a statement on Mar 7 in relation to Bloomberg's article, in which En+ had confirmed that it was currently reviewing its strategy for the company. According to the statement from En+, options included the possibility of developing the company's international business. En+ stressed that the strategic review was at a preliminary stage and that any future course of action would be subject to further consideration and discussion with relevant regulators and key stakeholders.

As previously reported:

Rusal International, as a mixture of Russian and international investors and assets, might be more and more difficult to keep its current existence as Russian companies were affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflicts. Rusal was considering separating the international business of Rusal International, which might emerge as a new company that would hold the group's international assets and no longer be owned, controlled and managed by Russian investors, and another company that would hold most of the group's Russian assets, according to Bloomberg.

En+ Group owned 57% of Rusal. The new company would take over Rusal's alumina, bauxite and aluminium assets worldwide, including those in Africa, Australia and Europe, the sources said. En+ chairman Gregory Barker would step down from the En+ board to focus on this matter and potentially take charge of the new company, the sources said.

Among Rusal's international assets, there is an alumina plant in Aughinish, Ireland, a major supplier in Europe, as well as an alumina plant in Jamaica and a stake in Rio Tinto Group's plant in Australia, and bauxite mines in Guinea.

The group also owns an alumina refinery in Ukraine, which announced last week that it had stopped shipments. Two of the sources said that the Ukrainian plant was likely to be included in the international assets.