London High Court supported Norilsk Nickel

MMCNorilsk Nickel today announced that Rusal has lost yet another attempt to disrupt Norilsk's $4.5bn Shareholder Value Enhancement Program approved by the Board of Directors on December 28, 2010 and to gain an unfair advantage at the EGM convened (by Rusal) for 11 March. Rusal tried to obtain confidential documents from our own lawyers, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, under an English procedure pursuant to which a Claimant can in exceptional circumstances obtain documents from an innocent third party. Debevoise resisted this attempt, relying in particular on the sanctity of the relationship between lawyer and clients.

President of Norilsk, Andrey Klishas, said: "I am delighted to report that today the London High Court judge threw out this claim, describing the order sought by Rusal as "an abuse of the process of the court" and sanctioning Rusal's "unreasonable" conduct with an indemnity costs order. The management of Norilsk will not tolerate serial litigation or diversionary tactics to prevent it from continuing to look after the interests of all shareholders. Management remains committed to promoting the prosperity of the Norilsk business for the benefit of all of its shareholders. "

"We are extremely happy that Debevoise strongly resisted this illegitimate attempt by Rusal to get information from our own lawyers and stood firm to preserve the sanctity of the lawyer client relationship. We will continue to resist these illegitimate attempts by Rusal to selfishly promote its own interests at the expense of other shareholders. We will not allow Rusal to damage the company in this way", - Andrey Klishas added.

The judge rejected much of what Rusal alleged as mere speculation and stressed throughout the judgment that Debevoise itself is a wholly innocent party. Neither Norilsk nor its subsidiaries was involved in this application in London. The judge rightly made clear that his findings have very limited relevance and application, that they apply only in the context of this unusual and unsuccessful discovery application and that his findings are strictly without prejudice to the positions of Norilsk or any other party.