Felix Yevtushenkov elected chairman of UPC board of directors
MOSCOW. July 27. (Interfax) - The son of AFK Sistema owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Felix, who recently chaired Bashneft's board of directors, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of OJSC United Petrochemical Company (UPC), which is a joint venture between Bashneft and Yakov Goldovsky's Petrochemical Holding, several sources familiar with the situation told Interfax.
According to one of the sources, the board of directors meeting at which the election took place occurred on July 26.
The main candidate for the UPC chairman position was ex-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Expectations were that he would be nominated to the board and then become its chief. However, while Luzhkov was elected to the board at UPC's shareholder meeting on June 26, the decision on a chairman was deferred.
Meanwhile, a source close to the ex-mayor told Interfax that Luzhkov turned down the chairman position because he had put forth a number of requirements to shareholders that were not met.
UPC has plans to construct large-scale production facilities at sites in Ufa and Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, according to the company's annual financial statement. A separate direction is to "create joint ventures with major global petrochemical companies and petrochemical product processing enterprises, as well as to acquire and consolidate major players in the polymer processing sphere," it said.
The company has set itself the primary goal of joining the ranks of the three largest Russian petrochemicals companies in terms of sales volumes. UPC's future target product portfolio consists of six of the most widespread polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, polyurethane and polymethylmethacrylate), as well as the end products made from them (packaging, cords and fabrics, construction items, organic glass, optics, etc.).
Bashneft owns 74.99% of UPC, and Petrochemical Holding GmbH owns a little over 25%.