Trustconsult and companies aligned with it owned the shares of the Bogoslovsk smelter, which is located in the Ural Mountains, and the Kandalaksha smelter in the Murmansk region, the Kamensk-Urals and Mikhailov metallurgical factories and two cable factories.
Renova, an Alfa Group affiliate, owns the Irkutsk and Urals smelters, which are part of SUAL, the Timan and Southern Urals bauxite mines and the Urals silicon factory. The companies ran a number of enterprises jointly.
SUAL-Holding controls more than 15 percent of the nation?€™s aluminum market and about 40 percent of the country?€™s alumina output.
It manages the coveted Sredne-Timansk bauxite mine, which is developing the largest deposit of raw materials for the aluminum industry in the country, Interfax reported.
"I took the decision to get out of the Russian aluminum business and have sold shares of aluminum enterprises controlled by Trustconsult to Renova," Vasily Anisimov, head of Trustconsult, said Monday.
Anisimov and Renova head Viktor Vekselberg caused ripples this spring when they announced the creation of a 50:50 partnership in SUAL-Holding.
The merger got off the ground in the fall, and in September the partners made their grandiose plans public.
Vekselberg said that his partner?€™s decision was not entirely a surprise, but that there had been no pressure on Anisimov to go.
"No one pushed me into this. It?€™s simply that this business is synonymous with colossal pressure, all the flying around leaves no time for one?€™s personal life. There came a moment when I had to choose between my family or this business, and I chose my family," Anisimov said.
It is possible that the death of Anisimov?€™s daughter this spring played a role in his decision.
Both partners reject outright the version that Trustconsult lacked the money to run a joint business. Trustconsult assets were worth less than those of Renova, and in order to receive 50 percent in the SUAL-Holding, Trustconsult was to pay an additional sum.
Anisimov and Vekselberg said that this sum was established in their agreement from the start, as was the sum that Trustconsult would receive were it to sell Renova its shares in the SUAL-Holding enterprises.
The value of the transaction, which will allow Renova to become the sole owner of the country?€™s second-largest aluminum company, was not revealed.
The former partners have said that ownership rights had begun to be transferred but that this process will take a long time.
Anisimov said his leaving SUAL-Holding would in no way affect the work of the holding.
After making the decision, Anisimov plans to take some time off and then turn to a new, international project that will not be connected with mergers and acquisitions.
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