Amid Nornickel’s Anxieties, Major Shareholders Interros and Rusal tussle Over Dividends

Amid Nornickel’s anxieties, major shareholders Interros and Rusal tussle over dividends

Interros and Rusal, major shareholders in Nornickel, are conflicting over dividends, even as Nornickel faces pressures amid geopolitical issues that require the company to disclose sensitive information. Nornickel is the world's largest palladium producer, which carmakers use in engine exhausts to reduce emissions, and a major miner of refined nickel, used for metallurgy and electric vehicle batteries.

While Rusal uses Nornickel's dividends to manage its $6.4 billion debt, Interros claimed that Rusal's London lawsuit challenging Nornickel's dividend policy, prioritized its financial needs over the company’s well-being.

Nornickel's largest shareholder Interros stated filing an objection to the lawsuit, alleging that Rusal was attempting to maximize dividends in its own interest. The long-running dispute between Nornickel’s Chief Executive Vladimir Potanin, who holds a 37 percent stake through Interros, and aluminium giant Rusal, which owns 26.4 percent, intensified at the end of 2022 when a decade-old shareholder pact protecting Nornickel's dividend payouts expired.

In 2022, Rusal alleged in the lawsuit that Potanin violated the shareholder agreement. Later, it added more claims, including alleging that Nornickel's employee incentive scheme benefited Potanin at the expense of other shareholders.

However, Interros maintained that the claims were unfounded. It accused Rusal of influencing Nornickel's dividend policy to solve its own issues. For the first nine months of 2023, Nornickel paid 140 billion roubles ($1.37 billion) in dividends, at 915.33 roubles per share.in 2023, it decided not to pay a full-year dividend and is not clear on payments for 2024.