MICEX-RTS shareholders might replace CEO Aganbegian with Afanasyev
MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - The shareholders of OJSC MICEX-RTS will consider replacing the Russian stock exchange's chief executive at their annual general meeting on Wednesday.
The exchange's CEO and president is currently Ruben Aganbegian. The MICEX-RTS board of directors on May 21 decided to put the issue of restructuring the exchange's management before shareholders at the AGM.
The CEO will become the principal management entity at the exchange, while the president will not have a role in management bodies. The president will be appointed by the board on the recommendation of the CEO.
The board has nominated Alexander Afanasyev, who has been deputy chief executive since the end of 2011, as the only candidate for the post of CEO. Prior to joining MICEX-RTS, Afanasyev was deputy chief executive at bank WestLB Vostok.
Central Bank deputy chairman Sergei Shvetsov, who is chairman of MICEX-RTS, told reporters after the May 21 board meeting that Afanasyev will focus on the growth of the exchange's business, and implementation of its development strategy.
"Ruben Aganbegian will remain president of the exchange. His attention will be turned to external affairs, particularly holding an IPO, relations with regulators. This tandem should make it possible to correctly divide management resources," Shvetsov said at the time.
Authorities wary
Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Savatyugin, who attended the May board meeting, said: "The exchange is introducing a new level in the hierarchy of management - a chief executive along with the president and chairman of the board of directors, which is rare on the Russian financial market. Whether he will be superfluous or helpful is up to the exchange's shareholders to decide."
The head of the Federal Financial Markets Service, Dmitry Pankin was also wary about the exchange having two top officials. "We'll see," he told reporters.
However, Pankin remarked that the UK is moving toward a twin peaks system in the field of regulatory responsibility. Britain "is now also discussing whether the market can be governed by two heads, where the FSA [Financial Services Authority] and HM Treasury are the regulators on the financial market. Usually the main regulator on the market is the FSA, but in a crisis situation the key decisions move to the Treasury," Pankin said.
Who has the last word?
Several market sources believe Afanasyev rather than Aganbegian would be a preferable choice to head the exchange for Shvetsov, who represents the exchange's principal shareholder. The Central Bank of Russia owns 24.326% of shares in MICEX-RTS. "For him, Afanasyev is a more loyal exchange head than Aganbegian," one source told Interfax.
Aganbegian was appointed to head the exchange two years ago, and his candidacy was endorsed by Central Bank first deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev, who was chairman of MICEX at the time but is not on the board of the merged exchange. Aganbegian's main job was to oversee the merger of MICEX and the RTS, and then take the merged exchange to an initial public offering.
Two sources on the exchange's board of directors said Shvetsov initiated the issue of replacing the exchange's chief executive. "Differences between them have increased since the new year," one source said. The other source said that one complaint against Aganbegian was that the integration of the two exchanges was not completed within a three-month period.
One minority shareholder of the exchange told Interfax that there are concerns that Aganbegian will not take on the responsibility of taking the exchange to an IPO. "In the current situation, when the implementation of the exchange's main project - the introduction of T+n settlements - has run into delays, it will be fairly difficult to sell the exchange to investors."
Several months ago, there were reports on the market that Shvetsov might not remain chairman of the exchange's board. In early April, Shvetsov confirmed to Interfax that the issue of who will be chairman of MICEX-RTS will be decided taking into account the recommendations of the investment banks working on the merged exchange's IPO. "They are supposed to say what's best, what's right," he said.
A number of sources close to the exchange said that Alexander Voloshin, currently head of a taskforce under the presidential council for the development of the financial market, could be appointed chairman of MICEX-RTS, but he is not on the list of candidates for the exchange's new board.
Interfax sources now have little doubt that Shvetsov will retain his position as chairman of the merged exchange.
Preserving the team
Meanwhile, MICEX-RTS could lose some of its other key employees. Several sources close to the exchange told Interfax earlier that first deputy CEO Roman Goryunov, who formerly headed the RTS, might leave the merged exchange.
Goryunov, along with Aganbegian, was reelected to the board of directors of the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) on June 18, which indirectly confirms that one of them will soon leave MICEX-RTS, since the association's board cannot include two representatives of the same company.
It was reported earlier that Goryunov has already received an offer from Nonprofit Partnership RTS to head the St. Petersburg Exchange. NP RTS now owns 20% of shares in this exchange, and plans to increase its stake to 60%.
A source close to the board of NP RTS told Interfax that Goryunov might move to the St. Petersburg Exchange along with his RTS team. "This is about 20 people," he said, adding that NP RTS expects an answer from Goryunov by the beginning of July, when the partnership is scheduled to hold a meeting of its members at which they will decide whether Goryunov remains on the partnership's board of directors. "I think that everything will become clear on June 20," the source said.
Goryunov, however, denied that he would announce his departure on June 20, on the day of the MICEX-RTS AGM, and declined further comment.
Two sources from the "RTS team" told Interfax that they expect a resolution to the situation soon.
