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Deripaska Elected to Norilsk's Board

Billionaire Oleg Deripaska was elected by shareholders Monday to Norilsk Nickel's board along with two members from his United Company RusAl, while VTB Group executive Vasily Titov became the new chairman.

Interros Holding, owned by Norilsk investor Vladimir Potanin, won four seats on the 13-member board, said Yevgeny Yelisseyev, who helped count the votes. Shareholders of Norilsk, one-quarter owned by RusAl, re-elected Brad Mills and Gerard Holden as independent directors. Chairman Alexander Voloshin lost his seat.

Norilsk CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky was re-elected and his deputies Oleg Pivovarchuk and Dmitry Kostoyev joined the board. Members representing RusAl missed a meeting to discuss the appointment of Titov, the first deputy chairman of VTB who had been serving as an independent director of Norilsk, Strzhalkovsky said.

RusAl previously sought to combine with Norilsk. Deripaska and Potanin ended a seven-month feud by agreeing in November 2008 to put merger plans on hold for three years and to avoid seeking board seats. Deripaska, also RusAl's CEO, said last month that he planned to focus on operations across his businesses, including at Norilsk.

Norilsk investors approved a 210 ruble ($6.77) per share dividend for 2009, the first payout in two years. Norilsk stopped paying dividends in April 2008 when RusAl bought its stake and vowed to seek a merger. RusAl will use Norilsk's dividend to pay creditors, Deripaska said last month.

RusAl said in a statement that it planned to convene an extraordinary general meeting of Norilsk following Monday's board elections.

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