Lai See | Rusal plays down Barry Cheung's resignation from board

In March last year CY Leung's victory in the "election" of the chief executive was celebrated on the website of Hong Kong-listed Russian aluminium company Rusal. This was because Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, then Rusal's chairman, played a significant part in CY's campaign.

The Rusal statement was fulsome in its praise of Cheung: "Mr Leung's winning was the culmination of a long and active campaign supported by a highly professional campaign office headed by Mr Cheung." However, the company's response to Cheung's resignation as an independent non-executive director at the end of last week following his problems with the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange was somewhat muted.

There was no mention of his resignation on its website, just a regulatory filing on his departure to the Hong Kong stock exchange. His departure raises the question of whether there will be any Hong Kong directors on the Rusal board following the AGM on June 14.

As we noted earlier, Sual Partners, which owns 15.8 per cent of Rusal, has tabled a resolution to remove former Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie from the board.

She was appointed along with Cheung when the company's Hong Kong IPO was struggling in December 2009. But it's unclear how much support the 'controlling' shareholder, Oleg Deripaska, can actually muster.

The website Dancing with Bears points out that Rusal's website says Deripaska controls 48.13 per cent of the firm. However, a report filed in February 2012 with the Jersey financial Services Commission shows that Deripaska's EN+ controls 38.01 per cent, suggesting that he may not have enough votes to ensure his candidates make it on to the board.