Mosocw Mayor Yury Luzhkov (second right) with his wife, businesswoman Elena Baturina (second left)
Photo: Vasily Dyachkov
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Viktor Baturin Sues His Sister's Company
Viktor Baturin, head of Inteko Agro, filed suit last month against ZAO Inteko, which belongs to his sister Elena Baturina, wife of the mayor of Moscow. Baturin claims that he was illegally dismissed from Inteko in late 2005 and is demanding that his dismissal be legally formulated and that he be provided with compensation prescribed by law. Analysts say that the suit is a formality and that Baturin's goal is compensation for the 25-percent share in Inteko that belonged to him until 2002. That share is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
Inteko released a statement at the beginning of last year saying that Baturin had “left the post of vice president of the company” without giving a reason for it. In March of last year, an unscheduled shareholders meeting voted to buy shares in the company from Baturin. He sold 600 shares (1 percent of the authorized capital) with a nominal value of 18,000 rubles for 552,336 rubles ($20 million). Baturin commented that spring that “the situation in the company is conflict-free.” Baturin told Kommersant a few months later that relations with his sister had been patched up and that she gave up her 50-percent share in Inteko Agro, making him full owner of the company.
Inteko was founded by the Baturin siblings in 1991 on an equal basis. The company's main activities are construction and production of construction materials and petrochemicals. In an official account on May 10, 2001, Elena Baturina owned 75 percent of the company and her brother the remaining quarter. Inteko Agro was founded in 2004. It specializes in agricultural projects. Baturin became head of the company in 2005 and it separated from Inteko. Inteko Agro controls about 100,000 hectares in Belgorod Region. Baturin's total assets, including a number of other firms owned by him, is estimated at $250-300 million, with turnover of more than $500 million.
Analysts find Baturin's suit unconvincing. “I don't thin the head of a large company with turnover of several hundred million dollars needs to go to court to get his old job back,” commented Yury Dobronravov of Dobronravov and Partners. Baturin admits that he is interested in the 25 percent of Intreko that were no longer ascribed to him in company accounts after May 13, 2002. “They illegally deprived me of those shares,” Baturin told Kommersant yesterday. Sources close to Baturin say that he and his sister have disagreed overt he running of Inteko Agro for the last two years and Baturin, according to one of his former employees, has “a passion for solving problems in court.” Inteko Agro about 100 cases active in various regional courts now. The suit against Inteko will be heard this month.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2007
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