Kilowatt-Chubais

Restructuring RAO UES is a complex matter. Chairman of the Board of RAO UES Anatoly Chubais has to maneuver between portfolio investors, governors, the state, and creditors. In general, there is nothing to envy - there are plenty of conflicts. Last Wednesday, Chubais discussed his plans with governors, speaking at the Federation Council (pictured), and with dissatisfied portfolio investors at an emergency meeting of the association for the protection of investor rights. (Photo: Nikolay Galkin )

The conflict over the restructuring plan between portfolio investors of RAO UES and the company's management suddenly burst into the open. The difficulties accompanying the reform of one of the natural monopolies have become known to the general public.

Events developed rapidly: at the end of the week before last, “in connection with requests from Western investors,” FCSM Chairman Igor Kostikov sent a letter to the government with a proposal to revise the restructuring plan for RAO UES. On the same day, the director of the Hermitage Foundation, William Browder, demanded the convening of an emergency meeting of the Association for the Protection of Investor Rights. The meeting, held last Wednesday, was attended by representatives of portfolio investors (including Soros funds), MGI, FCSM, and international organizations. Judging by the fact that an uninvited guest, Chairman of the Board Anatoly Chubais, unexpectedly appeared there, it became clear how concerned he was about the development of events.

Shareholders have reasons for dissatisfaction: they suffered large losses as a result of the rapid fall in RAO securities - from March 27 to June 6, quotes dropped by 32%, while the Russian Trading System index, reflecting the general situation on the market, fell only by 19 %. This is how the market reacted to the restructuring plan of the electric monster.

It must be said that Anatoly Borisovich tried to find a common language with investors, he even flew to New York and London, where he intended to discuss a restructuring plan that involved spinning off 700 small companies from RAO for their further sale. Using the funds received, Chubais hoped to solve the problems of the energy monopoly, in which a quarter of the turbines have been operating since the late thirties. It cannot be said that he found complete understanding. Investors were outraged by the fact that Anatoly Borisovich devotes too much time to political speeches (for example, at the Carnegie Foundation), not wanting to discuss restructuring problems in detail. In the end, the head of RAO UES nevertheless promised to take into account the investors' comments, but did not do this. Moreover, in Samara and Omsk, without a “go-ahead” from the board of directors of RAO and without any oversight from the shareholders, pilot projects for the reorganization of local joint-stock energos began.

“In such a situation, investment fund managers begin to get nervous and withdraw money - after all, they will have to report to their shareholders on how they managed their assets,” explains Dmitry Vasiliev, head of the Association for the Protection of Investor Rights, in an interview with Itogi. “This is where it comes to the point.” and people are involved who are interested in fighting Chubais for political reasons: officials who manage the state stake in RAO and who are influenced by a certain oligarchic group. But Chubais himself stepped on a rake."

The shareholders had very little time left to correct the situation - on June 16, the board of RAO UES was going to approve a restructuring plan, which, from the point of view of shareholders, was full of shortcomings and was not worked out in detail. Agreeing that restructuring was necessary (it was necessary to create a competitive environment), investors protested against the immediate sale of property at bargain prices: the average price of assets of energy companies in terms of one kilowatt of power in Russia differs from the world by a factor of twenty (in Russia it is 64 dollars, and on the world market - 1154). According to investors, the company’s management should have focused on eliminating barter, increasing the share of real money in paying for electricity, on the problems of low tariffs, etc., that is, on increasing operational efficiency, and therefore increasing the value of the company itself. And after that, you can say goodbye to some of your unnecessary assets. A rapid sell-off today would mean that investors, as a result of a long transformation, would end up with shares of small companies that would be completely illiquid. In addition, in the new structures, controlling stakes will belong to the subsidiaries of RAO UES, as a result of which the assets and financial flows of these structures will come under the control of the subsidiaries, and not the shareholders of RAO. (By the way, Igor Kostikov’s letter to the government consisted of an almost verbatim retelling of investors’ concerns.)

“Anatoly Borisovich and his team approached the problem too abstractly. According to their idea, as a result of the reorganization, a wholesale electricity market was supposed to develop, where bad power plants die and good ones survive,” says Dmitry Vasiliev. “But from the point of view of the securities market, small companies are not have no chance of survival."

A joint attack by the FCSM (consider the government, where Anatoly Borisovich has very few allies) and Western investors forced the head of the company to listen to the claims and quickly back down: after all, in an alliance with the state (53% of shares), foreign investors (33% of shares) are able to remove the chairman of the board in a very short time (this requires 75% of the votes at the general meeting).

Chubais admitted that most of the claims are fair, that in fact there is no restructuring plan, it needs to be re-discussed and approved at a meeting of shareholders. He has already started talking about dividing into thirty companies and merging companies at the interregional level (which was part of the investor proposals). Pilot projects, included, by the way, in the terms of the World Bank's structural adjustment loan to Russia (SAL-3), will actually be stopped in order to collect complete information and provide it to investors. In general, the conflict seems to have been resolved. But with one caveat: a tarnished reputation greatly reduces trust in the head of the company. If the agreements on the part of the board are not fulfilled, investors are unlikely to want to organize a public flogging again; they will simply send a letter demanding that an extraordinary meeting of shareholders be convened. And then the political enemies of Anatoly Borisovich will be able to triumph: their main goal - to remove Chubais from office - can be achieved with the wrong hands, with the help of former allies of the head of RAO, because it was foreign investors who last year helped the head of the company approve the current procedure for the re-election of the chairman of the board.