RUSAL deal secrecy sparks debate at Sberbank

* Corporate rights crusader seeks truth on RUSAL

Financials

* Says Sberbank should be more open about its borrowers

* Shareholders committee sends a letter to management

By Dmitry Sergeyev and Oksana Kobzeva

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Sberbank pressed Russia's top lender on Friday to clarify ties with its biggest borrowers, after a corporate rights crusader attacked management for backing indebted aluminium giant RUSAL's share float.

Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of state-run public companies, has questioned Sberbank's (SBER03.MM) agreement to refinance $2.25 billion of RUSAL (0486.HK) debt. [ID:nLDE60K1DG]

"There was a heated debate in the committee of Sberbank's minority shareholders and we reached a compromise. We asked the bank's management board to provide information on major borrowers, risk-management and collateral for loans," Navalny, a committee member, told Reuters. The committee sent its request in a letter to the bank's management board.

Sberbank's Chief Financial Officer, Anton Karamzin, told Reuters in an e-mail comment the bank would study the request, but declined further comment.

Sberbank's debt agreement removed a major stumbling block for the world's largest aluminium company to go public, although regulators in Hong Kong banned retail investors from taking part, citing the firm's heavy debt and legal risks. [ID:nTOE5B60DM]

RUSAL, controlled by tycoon Oleg Deripaska, raised $2.2 billion in a Hong Kong share float last week to repay some of its $14.9 billion debt, and is currently trading 12 percent below its initial public offering price. [ID:nTOE60Q02O]

The firm has already received a Russian government bailout in excess of $5 billion after aluminium prices collapsed, causing outrage among some businessmen, who said that was only possible due to Deripaska's close Kremlin connections.

Navalny said he was not fully satisfied with the letter as the wording became overly general during the debate, instead of being focused purely on RUSAL, and added he would pursue more information and initiate more debate.

The committee's head, Anton Danilov-Danilyan, said that most members disagreed with Navalny that Sberbank's backing of RUSAL's IPO was detrimental.

"We didn't want to hard-pedal RUSAL as a separate issue ... Apart from Navalny, who initiated the discussion, all people have concluded that the IPO was positive for the bank as the company received money and the bank's risks have fallen," he said. (Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Editing by; Editing by Rupert Winchester)