BP hopes to establish true initiators of TBH minority shareholders lawsuit
MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) - BP hopes to establish the true initiators of the lawsuits filed by minority shareholders in OJSC TNK-BP Holding (TBH) against the company.
"On Thursday, BP sent a statement to the administration of the Investigative Committee of Moscow and the Tyumen region with the request to investigate a message that appeared in the mass media saying that minority shareholders in TNK-BP Holding, instituting billions of dollars in claims against BP, were misguided by unidentified individuals and gave the powers of attorney to these individuals to represent their interests in court for a promised reward," BP lawyer Konstantin Lukoyanov told Interfax.
Information that the minority shareholders were unaware both of the nature of the claims against BP and of the amount of compensation sought will be looked into, Lukoyanov said.
"We expect that as a result of the comprehensive investigation of this information, the true initiators of the unfounded claims against BP will be established," he said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Interfax, one of the initiators of the claims, Andrei Prokhorov, said that he and other minority shareholders had agreed to the wording of the claims, petitions, and other key elements of the lawsuits. "We of course understand the nature of the claims, what they are directed at, which damages will be recovered in favor of TBH," he said.
TBH minority shareholders are attempting to recover damages from a planned partnership between OJSC Rosneft and BP. They believe that the preparations for such an alliance violated the TNK-BP shareholders agreement, which stipulates that BP must implement all of its projects in Russia exclusively through the TNK-BP joint venture.
The minority shareholders filed a lawsuit against members of TBH's board of directors; however, the suit was disallowed because the plaintiffs did not represent the 1% of company stock required in this case. In addition, Prokhorov filed a lawsuit against BP and its subsidiary BP Russian Investments Limited. His claim was also denied.