Russian Federation aluminium giant U.C. Rusal announced yesterday the redomiciliation of its company to Russian soil.
Rusal is now a corporate resident of the Oktyabrsky Island Special Administrative Region (SAR), in the Kaliningrad Region. The firm moves its domicile from Jersey, where it was incorporated under the country’s laws of limited liability.
Rusal’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Bernard Zonneveld elaborated upon the reasoning for the move of the firm’s domicile.
“A significant part of RUSAL’s production assets are located in Russia, so changing the country’s jurisdiction to the Russian SAR is a logical step in terms of simplifying the management structure of the Company, which will retain its international status.”
Rusal says the registration of foreign legal entities was carried out by the JSC’s Corporation for the development of the Far East and its Corporation for the development of the Kaliningrad region. Moscow created the SARs two years ago on Oktyabrsky Island and Russky Island in Primorsky Krai.
The jurisdiction in which Rusal is domiciled also came under scrutiny two years ago when it came under sanction by the United States government. The Trump Administration alleged that it headquartered in Jersey in an effort at keeping the company’s officers away from the long arm of Russian law. Company founder and then-president Oleg Deripaska was the primary target of such sanctions, ultimately leading to his departure from the firm’s leadership.