Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has won a landmark payout deal with Swiss metals giant Glencore International. Under the agreement, Glencore will pay Alba a cash settlement in connection with controversial payments involving the Swiss company's agents.

The agreement also re-establishes business ties between the two companies.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa hailed the role of Mumtalakat and the Alba chairman in reaching this deal and their commitment to the principles of transparency and integrity to protect public money.

On March 18, Bahrain's Public Prosecutor filed charges in the High Criminal Court against two former Alba sales and marketing employees in connection with transactions with a Japanese trading company.

The Crown Prince said: 'Mumtalakat runs state-owned companies in full transparency and strives to increase the standards of professionalism in terms of performance in order to increase their productivity and profitability, which in turn increases state revenues.'

He encouraged employees to reveal financial or administrative irregularities to protect public money.

He also emphasised the importance of the Public Prosecutor to hold companies' managers and staff accountable for legal violations.

Yesterday's agreement is not related to the widely reported civil suit filed by Alba in a Pennsylvania court against US company Alcoa and other defendants, Alba said in a statement.

'The resolution of this case marks the culmination of a long and exhaustive investigation,' its chairman Mahmood Al Kooheji said.

'By reaching a fair settlement, Glencore has shown itself to be determined and consistent in enforcing its policies of good governance,' he said.

Glencore, a privately held company based in Baar, Switzerland, is one of the world's largest traders of metals, minerals and raw materials.

Alba operates the world's largest modern smelter and produces more than 860,000 tonnes of finished aluminium annually.-TradeArabia News Service