Sberbank, VEB to refinance $4.5 bln of RUSAL debt

MOSCOW Jan 21 (Reuters) - Russian lender Sberbank SBER03.MM and state-owned VEB bank have reached an agreement on refinancing $4.5 billion of Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL's debt, Sberbank's chief executive German Gref said on Thursday.

The lenders will take on an equal share of the refinancing, Gref said.

UC RUSAL won approval to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange late last year after securing a deal to refinance its $16.8 billion debt pile, now reduced to $14.9 billion. (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Lidia Kelly, editing by Will Waterman)