CORRECTED: Norilsk Nickel AGM over, quorum 93.54%
(paragraphs 8 sand 9 altered)
MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - MMC Norilsk Nickel's AGM took place in Moscow on Tuesday.
The quorum was 83.55% when the meeting started and 93.54% when it finished at 3:40 p.m., the company's press office said.
The quorum for an extraordinary meeting on March 11 was 93.513%.
Vladimir Potanin's Interros voted to elect its four existing board representatives to the new board of directors plus two independent candidates backed by the consultancy Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), Larisa Zelkova, one of the incumbents, told reporters.
"We voted just as Mr. Potanin instructed us to yesterday," Zelkova said.
She did not say whether Interros had voted for Andrei Klishas as Norilsk Nickel president, as at the EGM on March 11; nor did she say whether Interros would back Alexander Voloshin if he is elected to the new board. Interros has backed Voloshin for board chairman in the past.
The existing Interros board members are Andrei Bugrov, Sergei Barbashev, Larisa Zelkova and Marianna Zakharova. ISS recommended voting for existing independent director independent candidates Brad Mills, an incumbent, and Enos Banda, chief executive of Freetel Capital Ltd.
Aluminum giant UC Rusal cast some of its votes in favor of Alexander Voloshin, the current Norilsk Nickel board chairman. "We voted for him in such a way as to get him elected. Something unforeseen would have to happen for him not to be elected," Maxim Sokov, himself a Rusal candidate, told reporters.
Sokov, who is Rusal's strategy and corporate development manager, said Rusal had backed Metalloinvest representative Farhad Moshiri. "We made up the votes he needed in order to get elected," Sokov said.
The Rusal candidates for the board are Voloshin, Sokov, and Oleg Deripaska, independent director Lucian Bebchuk, Artem Volynets of En+ Group and Stalbek Mishakov, a former Rusal board member and former chief of Basic Element's development business.
Independent director Terrence Wilkinson was again nominated.
Rusal also nominated Farhad Moshiri, business partner of Metalloinvest owner Alisher Usmanov.
Dutch commodities trader Trafigura Beheer has again nominate its executive board members Claude Dauphin and Simon Collins.
The results of voting at the AGM will be unveiled on June 21. The new board is expected to hold its first meeting today.
The current 13-member board, elected on March 11, contains Alexander Voloshin, Farhad Moshiri, Oleg Deripaska and Maxim Sokov, Lucian Bebchuk, all nominated by or with backing from Rusal; board members from Interros are Andrei Bugrov, Sergei Barbashev, Marianna Zakharova and Larisa Zelkova, Norilsk Nickel officials Vladimir Strzhalkovsky and Andrei Klishas; Trafigura's Dauphin; and Brad Mills.
Interros controls up to 30% and Rusal - 25.13% of Norilsk Nickel. Alisher Usmanov owns 4% but plans to increase his stake to 5%. Dutch commodities trader Trafigura agreed to buy 8% of Norilsk Nickel form its subsidiaries at the end of last year, but Norilsk Nickel has yet to announce the closure of that deal. Norilsk Nickel subsidiary Corbiere Holdings Limited has bought 6.85% so far in a buyback and plans to buy another 2.3% at market prices.
