Hydrodemarche of the dissenting ones

The relations of the Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and his predecessor, the president of Rosneft Igor Sechin have worsened again. After I.Sechin was unable to keep the 50 billion roubles of dividends, which have entered into the Rosneftegaz accounts from Gazprom and Rosneft, clear, the risk occurred that said funds would not be assigned as planned to the additional capitalization of Rushydro.

Five members of the Board led by the Chairman, First Vice President of Gazprombank Vladimir Tatsiy, opposed the additional emission. Thus, the directors representing the State ignored the Government’s directive. The quorum was minimal (only 7 of the 13 members have voted), and the decision on the additional emission was adopted only thanks to the personal presence of A.Dvorkovich. Otherwise, the energy company would have been unable to receive the budget funds before the end of the year. The plans of I.Sechin concerning the Rushydro are long-standing and far-reaching. The company was planned to be integrated into Rosneftegaz. As a result, the head of Rosneft was only able to retain the chance to obtain control over Inter RAO in the following years. According to Dmitry Abzalov, Vice President of the Center of Strategic Communications, the demarche of the directors is an attempt to delay the decision on the additional emission. All directors, who refused to approve the additional emission of the shares of the energy company, sent their requests to leave the Board to the company’s management and the Rosimuschestvo. It is unofficially said that one of the reasons for the directors’ demarche is that the shareholders’ meeting, which approved the additional emission, was held on November 16, before the Presidential Decree on the additional emission (November 22). Arthur Rokhlin, Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", says: “Political aspects aside, the decision by the shareholders’ meeting, even if it was held before the Presidential Decree, to issue additional shares of Rushydro, is legitimate”. According to the expert, the career of the rebellious directors “may cease to develop further” for political reasons.

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