MOSCOW, October 16 (RAPSI) - The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) has ruled in favor of RUSAL in a lawsuit the company filed against Nigeria on the validity of its purchase of the Alscon plant in that country, RIA Novosti reports citing the company’s statement.

RUSAL filed a lawsuit with the LCIA in August 2012 against four state institutions in Nigeria, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the federal government of Nigeria, the Ministry of Finance and the National Council for Privatization. The lawsuit was to confirm the validity of RUSAL’s purchase of the Alscon plant from the defendants in 2006.

In October 2013, the Nigerian government began to transfer the rights to Alscon to BFI Group that was also trying to secure its right to the assets in court. RUSAL was ready to abandon the asset if it was awarded $500 million in compensation, basically the money spent on plant improvements.

Alscon was first launched in 1997 and then suspended in 2000. After the purchase of a controlling stake, RUSAL modernized the plant and reopened it in 2008. The plant’s designed capacity is 193 tons of aluminum per year.