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TNK-BP Board Candidates List Illegal
A Tyumen Region arbitration court ruled on Thursday in favor of Alexander Gorshkov, a member of the board of directors of TNK-BP Holding, was filed suit claiming that the list of candidates for the new board of directors was formed illegally, reports RIA Novosti information agency. The court ruled that “the decision of the board of directors on June 3, 2008… on introducing the list of candidates for member of the board of directors at the annual shareholders meeting is found to be illegal.” The list of candidates, which was approved at the annual shareholders meeting on June 26, is identical to the previous year’s and gives five places to representatives of the British BP and only four places to representatives of the Russian AAR consortium.
TNK-BP International Ltd., which is owned equally by BP and AAR, owns 95 percent of OAO TNK-BP Holding. The remaining 5 percent belongs to minority shareholders. AAR is objecting to the election of the TNK-BP board of directors. It claims that the four Russian directors, Roman Bezrukov, Alexander Gorshkov, Boris Kondrashov and Igor Maidannik, submitted a written request to be removed from the candidates’ list.
The Russian directors hold that the board of directors met on June 3 in violation of Russian law, the charter of the company and the shareholders’ agreement between BP and AAR because the Russian directors had not given their consent to being included their consent to be candidates for election to the following year’s board. A board of directors cannot function with less than nine members under Russian law. Chairman of the TNK-BP board Robert Dudley had the proxy for 95 percent of the shares. His actions in his position with the company have been a source of conflict with its Russian shareholders.
www.kommersant.com
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