The SUAL Group today announces it will pay supplementary life pensions to veterans of the Great Patriotic War who worked at the company's installations prior to retirement. The pensions will be paid on a monthly basis. The average amount throughout 2005 will be RUB 1,329 a month. The first payments will commence in January 2005, on the year of the 60th Anniversary of the Great Victory.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUAL Holding Victor Vekselberg noted: «The decision to pay supplementary life pensions to veterans of the Great Patriotic War who earlier worked at the SUAL Group operations is our tribute of gratitude to those who defended our home country from fascism.» According to the Chairman, this pension programme is introduced to complement the already running supplementary pension insurance programmes for veterans at the Group operations, the average level of life pensions will be reviewed and increased every year.

The Company will transfer the amount required to pay the life pensions to the 900 veterans to the Interregional Private Big Pension Fund. The monthly pension of every veteran of the Great Patriotic War — former workers of the Group operations — will equal twice the amount of the base old age pension provided by the State. The initial amount of RUB 1,320 per pension will be regularly indexed.

«In October-November this year every veteran who worked at any of the Group operations will receive a personal account with the Fund, and in January 2005 the actual payments will commence,» said Member of the Big Pension Fund Board Alexei Goncharov. — For the veterans' convenience, all payments will be conducted through the Fund's affiliates and representations in cities where the Holding operates.«

The Company has already signed off the supplementary pension insurance programme for veterans of the SUAL Group (The Care Programme), which now covers some 20 thousand people. The monthly supplementary pension allowance for a SUAL veteran depends on his/her length of service with SUAL, his/her governmental or industry awards. The summary amount channeled into the Care Programme is more than USD 2 million a year.

Note for editors

The SUAL Group is a vertically integrated business among the ten largest aluminium producers in the world. It comprises industrial enterprises involved in the mining of bauxite and production of alumina, primary aluminium, silicon, semi-finished and finished aluminium products.

Annually, operations of the SUAL Group:

• Mine some 4.4 million tonnes of bauxite
• Refine more than 2 million tonnes of alumina
• Produce some 890,000 tonnes of primary aluminium
• Produce more than 50,000 tonnes of silicon
• Manufacture more than 110,000 tonnes of aluminium products

Interregional Private Big Pension Fund (IP BPF) was created in 1995 and became one of the first in Russia to be licensed in running supplementary pension insurance programmes (License No 78 as of 28 March 1996). The Fund renders services under more than 5 thousand pensions with individuals and legal entities. The summary contribution of IP BPF shareholders as of 31.12.2003 amounted to RUB 32,950,000, the Fund's own property is estimated at RUB 100 million. The Fund runs pension insurance programmes for enterprises of SUAL, TNK and RENOVA. On 26 April this year the Fund received a license (No. 78/2) for supplementary pension provision and pension insurance activities.