RUSAL IPO attracts Rothschild, Paulson, Kuok - sources

HONG KONG, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Russia's UC RUSAL, the world's biggest aluminium maker, has attracted a who's who list of investors prior to its planned IPO, including the scion of the Rothschild family, one of the richest men in Southeast Asia, and the U.S. hedge fund that made billions last year.

According to two sources involved in the IPO, RUSAL's roughly $2 billion Hong Kong IPO planned for January has attracted four cornerstone investors, or investors who buy shares of the company before it publicly lists, promising to hold them until a later date.

The sources said the investors included: Nathaniel Rothschild's private investment company; Robert Kuok Hock Nien, the Malaysian-Chinese businessman said to be worth around $10 billion; Paulson & Co., the New York hedge fund run by billionaire John Paulson, and Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank.

The sources said the official list of cornerstone investors would not be final until the prospectus became public later this week.

(Reporting by Kennix Chim and Michael Flaherty; Editing by Chris Lewis)

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