Montenegro has agreed to extend the electricity subsidies for its foundering aluminium plant for another four years under a rescue plan to avert a pullout by the main owner, the indebted Russian businessman, Oleg Deripaska.

The Central European Aluminium Company, part of Mr Deripaska’s Basic Element, would sign a new energy-supply contract with state officials by the end of this week, said Andrey Kuznetsov, CEAC’s director for government relations and corporate affairs.