Voloshin gets most votes in Norilsk Nickel board re-election
MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - Former Russian presidential administration chief Alexander Voloshin got the most votes of any candidate elected to MMC Norilsk Nickel's new-look board of directors at an EGM on March 11, says a report on the results of the meeting, published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.
Voloshin, who is a member of the board of directors at Yandex NV, which owns one of Russia's biggest Internet search engines, and chairman of the board at potash miner Uralkali , got 185.9 million votes or more than 8% of all votes cast.
UC Rusal, which owns a blocking stake in Norilsk, nominated Voloshin. The candidate in second place by number of votes was Farhad Moshiri, the business partner of Metalloinvest chief Alisher Usmanov, who was nominated with Rusal's backing. He got 7.2% of the votes cast or 166.4 million votes.
UC Rusal got two of its own representatives - Oleg Deripaska and Maxim Sokov - elected to the board. Deripaska was third by votes cast with 6.9% or 160 million votes.
Rusal candidate Lucian Bebchuk of the Harvard Law School was fourth with 6.8% (158.6 million votes) and Skokov was fifth with 6.7% (156.4 million).
Four representatives of Vladimir Potanin's Interros and two from Norilsk Nickel itself were elected to the board. The board members from Interros are Andrei Bugrov, Sergei Barbashev, Marianna Zakharova and Larisa Zelkova. The Norilsk Nickel officials are CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky and President Andrei Klishas. Dutch commodities trader Trafigura Beheer got Claude Dauphin elected.
The two independent directors elected are incumbent Bradford Mills, the executive director of Plinian Capital Plc, and Lucian Bebchuck.
Interros nominated the Norilsk Nickel and Trafigura representatives, and Brad Mills.
Vladimir Strzhalkovsky received 6.2% of the votes cast or 143.9 million, and ranks sixth behind Rusal's Skokov. Mills got the least votes with 5.8% or 134 million.
Ranking of candidates elected to the new Norilsk Nickel board by number of votes:
| Candidate | Number of votes | % of overall votes cast |
| 1. Alexander Voloshin | 185 896 328 | 8,02% |
| 2. Farhad Moshiri | 166 412 904 | 7,18% |
| 3. Oleg Deripaska | 160 113 080 | 6,9% |
| 4. Lucian Bebchuk | 158 612 416 | 6,84% |
| 5. Maxim Skokov | 156 408 292 | 6,75% |
| 6. Vladimir Strzhalkovsky | 143 972 635 | 6,21% |
| 7. Claude Dauphin | 142 692 491 | 6,16% |
| 8. Andrei Klishas | 142 493 999 | 6,15% |
| 9. Sergei Barbashev | 141 375 119 | 6,1% |
| 10. Andrei Bugrov | 141 351 052 | 6,1% |
| 11. Marianna Zakharova | 141 263 164 | 6,09% |
| 12. Larisa Zelkova | 141 099 283 | 6,09% |
| 13. Bradford Mills | 134 134 092 | 5,78% |
Vasily Titov, the current board chairman who signed the protocol on the EGM, was not elected to the new board. Titov, a first deputy chairman of VTB , only received 0.08% of the vote. Sberbank representative Oskar Ratsin was not elected either.
Nor was board veteran Gerard Holden, who got 102 million votes or 4.4% of the total - the most of any candidate not to be elected. Boris Bakal, an Interros executive, got the least votes with 0.01%.
Candidates not elected:
| Candidate | Number of votes | % of votes cast |
| 14. Gerard Holden | 102 217 261 | 4,4% |
| 15. Terrence Wilkinson | 4 077 632 | 0,17% |
| 16. Vasily Titov | 1 910 560 | 0,08% |
| 17. Oskar Ratsin | 1 080 789 | 0,04% |
| 18. Artem Volynets | 506 947 | 0,02% |
| 19. Nathaniel Rothschild | 483 502 | 0,02% |
| 20. Enos Banda | 455 315 | 0,02% |
| 21. John Lindquist | 432 451 | 0,02% |
| 22. John Fast | 423 760 | 0,02% |
| 23. Simon Collins | 418 129 | 0,02% |
| 24. Boris Bakal | 309 349 | 0,01% |
| 25. Alexei Bashkirov | 302 905 | 0,01% |
| 26. Vladimir Kantorovich | 247 856 | 0,01% |
| 27. Olga Zinovyeva | 228 454 | 0,01% |
Three members of the board elected at last year's AGM - Oleg Pivovarchuk, Dmitry Kostoyev and Vladislav Solovyev - were not nominated for the new board.
One share in Norilsk Nickel carries 13 votes. The company has 190,627,747 issued ordinary shares.
The quorum for the EGM was 93.52%, and 86.7% of those present backed the board's re-election.
The EGM had been initiated for the second time in less than six months by UC RUSAL Investment Management LLC, a subsidiary of UC Rusal Plc), the holder of over 10% of the company's shares. The agenda of shareholder meeting included two items: pre-term termination of powers of the Board members and election of the new Board of Directors of MMC Norilsk Nickel.
