MegaFon shareholders to elect new board of directors Sept 27
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - The board of directors of OJSC MegaFon has scheduled an extraordinary shareholder meeting for September 27 to terminate the powers of the current board and elect a new one, the mobile operator reported.
The list of shareholders with the right to participate in the meeting was compiled on July 9.
MegaFon's current board of directors was elected at the annual general shareholder meeting on June 28. Scandinavian company TeliaSonera, which holds a blocking stake in the operator, initiated the upcoming extraordinary meeting.
The list of candidates to the board for voting at the annual meeting was compiled back in January (by law, the deadline is January 30). TeliaSonera's management underwent changes after that date. Its CEO Lars Nyberg left the company (he was removed from the board of directors at MegaFon's June 28 meeting), as did its Vice President for Corporate Communications Cecilia Edstrom, who ended up on MegaFon's new board of directors. In all likelihood, it is precisely her participation on the board that will be affected by the reelection, a source close to MegaFon's shareholders previously told Interfax.
MegaFon's board has seven directors, including three representatives of the controlling shareholder, two representatives of TeliaSonera and two independent directors.
At present, the interests of MegaFon's main shareholders are represented on the board by USM Advisors head Vladimir Streshinsky, former MegaFon CEO and board chairman Sergei Soldatenkov, Jan Erixon of LLC Olimp, who were all nominated by the companies of controlling shareholder Alisher Usmanov; Hogia AB chairman Jan Rudberg and former UK Treasury Minister Paul Myners, both independents; and Edstrom.
The chairman of MegaFon's board of directors is scheduled for election at a board meeting on July 15. According to the company's press service, Soldatenkov will remain chairman until then.
This board structure was established after MegaFon's initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange and Moscow Exchange in November 2012. Garsdale owns 50% plus 100 shares in MegaFon, TeliaSonera owns 25.174% and the operator's subsidiary MegaFon Investments owns 7.57%. MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin's company Anfimako Ltd (Cyprus) holds 2.5% of the operator. Usmanov's USM Holdings owns 82% of Garsdale, and Telconet Capital and state corporation Rostec own the remaining shares.
