Bashneft to significantly expand independent director representation on board
MOSCOW. May 30. (Interfax) - The board of directors of Bashneft has approved the list of board candidates for election at the June 29 annual general shareholder meeting, which includes significantly more independents than before, the company said in a statement.
Three new names appear on the list: chairman of Shell Russia's board of directors Charles Watson; Canada's Randall Gossen, who was previously president of the World Petroleum Council; and ex-Russian Natural Resources Minister and Director of CNII Center Vitaly Artyukhov.
These three candidates will replace AFK Sistema President Mikhail Shamolin, First Vice President of Sistema Anton Abugov and head of the Urals charitable foundation Murtaza Rakhimov.
Commenting on Abugov's and Shamolin's removal from the board, a Sistema representative told Interfax that the number of independent directors in the company's oil subsidiary will thereby increase. "This corresponds to global practice, and Sistema already expanded the representation of independent directors on its own board of directors long ago," he said.
With regards to Rakhimov's exit from the board, the representative said that it was a mutual decision. Rakhimov could possibly join an expert council under Bashneft leadership, the creation of which is currently being considered.
The rest of Bashneft's board members are: member of Sistema's board of directors Alexander Goncharuk, Sistema First Vice President Felix Evtushenkov, Russneft's President and co-owner Mikhail Gutseriev, Senior Sistema Vice President Alexei Buyanov, Senior Sistema Vice President Sergei Drozdov, Bashneft President Alexander Korsik and head of the Bashkortostan Chamber of Commerce Yury Pustovgarov.
The board of directors has also approved a decision and a prospectus for a shares issue to be converted into shares of subsidiaries to be merged with Bashneft. That includes 60,340,000 ordinary shares and 7,090,000 preferred shares.