The board of directors at the Achinsk alumina refinery, Russia's second-largest, says it will triple the number of the company's shares and raise $95.8 million for modernization at the plant.

The refinery is located in the Krasnoyarsk region and is the principal supplier of the Krasnoyarsk smelter (KrAZ), owned by Russian Aluminum (Rusal). With an annual capacity of 900,000 tons, Achinsk is second to the Bogoslovsk alumina refinery, which is 3 percent larger. Last year, Achinsk produced 862,500 tons.

According to Vladimir Alexandrov, spokesman for Rusal, which took control of Achinsk when it acquired KrAZ, the new shares will be placed "among the shareholders of the company through open subscription."

At the moment, four offshore companies representing Rusal own 54.1 percent of the Achinsk shares. KrAZ owns 24.5 percent, while Transnational Aluminum Co. (Tanaco) has 18 percent. Tanaco is a vehicle of the former KrAZ chairman, Anatoly Bykov, who is currently awaiting trial in a Moscow prison on murder charges .

"The sole aim of the share emission is to attract investment, which will go into modernization of the plant," Alexandrov said. He denied rumors that the share emission is aimed at diluting Bykov's shareholding.

Suspicion that the share issue might result in the dilution of Tanaco's stake and the elimination of Bykov's influence stems from the recent issue of new shares by KrAZ, where Bykov companies Solomonia Co. and Agoma Enterprises held a 28 percent stake. The Bykov group opposed the move, but was powerless to stop it. In the KrAZ case, the shareholding will be increased from $28.5 million to $85.5 million. But the capital raised will be only about $242,000.

Achinsk was in turmoil for several years, as shareholders at KrAZ, including Bykov and the Trans World group, fought creditors, as well as the regional and federal government, over the control of the plant's output. The creditors and the governments accused the KrAZ shareholders of operating a scheme to fix the alumina price too low, and con the plant of trade profits.

In 1999, daily protests at the plant by different groups of workers were televised nationwide, while Gov. Alexander Lebed, head of the Krasnoyarsk government, tried to turn the case into an example of his administrative strength. Once KrAZ and Achinsk were taken over by Rusal last year, the protests subsided.