TNK-BP shareholder conflict may arise again - Fridman
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - TNK-BP Board Chairman and co-owner Mikhail Fridman has said conflicts between TNK-BP shareholders could arise again in the future.
"I cannot tell our respected colleagues [BP] that if everything remains as it is today than in three years we will not have any new conflicts. That would be dishonest. They could arise. We are establishing different insurance mechanisms: independent directors, agreements, court. But we cannot avoid potential conflict in strategic tasks between these two companies. This could be repeated or it might not. I am sure that we and BP will make every effort to avoid conflict situations," he said in an interview with the corporate journal Tvoya Kompaniya.
The reason for shareholder confrontation lies in a clash of interests between TNK-BP and BP. "The source of the conflict is that we have strategic differences because TNK-BP is an oil company and one of its shareholders - BP is also an oil company, with its own strategy. And, quite naturally BP as a shareholder is happy with what TNK-BP does until it is contrary to its interests and freedom. As soon as it hits the area where TNK-BP strategy clashes with BP strategy, our colleagues face a difficult situation," he said.
When TNK-BP was established on a 50/50 basis by AAR and BP "nobody knew how it would develop, there were different views. BP thought we would take a less active role. Btu we chose more active participation in company activities. I consider that to be correct. Therefore we see BP as an equal partner," he said.
In addition, when TNK-BP was established the scale of its activities was not entirely clear. "BP virtually considered TNK-BP as its Russian branch. Fine. But with time it became clear that, because of the scope of company activities and probably due to certain views from our shareholders, TNK-BP ambitions were much broader than simply to represent BP interests in some narrow geographical segment," Fridman said.
"Therefore, we naturally found that in some cases this conflicted with BP interests. The Rosneft deal is a perfect illustration of that," he added.
Asked whether he would have made such a step in BP's place, Fridman said: "I do not know how I would have acted. Probably I would have more thoroughly studied the legal aspect."
Commenting on partnership with BP, he said "we have gained a lot from this cooperation, we have learned a lot and continue to learn from specialists. I was one of the great apologists for the deal and always repeated and still repeat in different interviews that I do not regret the deal. We believe it was mutually beneficial. I am certain that our partners, despite the media hype surrounding our relations, also do not regret anything. The material results speak for themselves and I think this is the most successful partnership in BP's history," he said.
