Translated material
Abyzov's case lives on
Former top manager of RAO will give advice on the construction of energy facilities
The Board of Directors of RAO UES of Russia yesterday finally decided who would head the investment board commission created a month ago. As initially expected, the appointment became scandalous - the former deputy chairman of the board of the energy holding, Mikhail Abyzov, who, after leaving RAO UES, headed Kuzbassrazrezugol and started his own engineering business within the E4 company, was appointed to the post of manager. As one of the participants in the power engineering market told Vremya Novostei, “We will have to see in a year and a half what percentage of orders from RAO the E4 company will receive: if it is a small percentage, then there is nothing wrong with the appointment of Mr. Abyzov, but if it’s the other way around, then we can say that RAO has strangled the Russian engineering market.”RAO has decided to create a commission that will determine which new energy facilities to build, where and at what price. The volume of RAO's investment program until 2015 is now 2.1 trillion rubles. ($80 billion), however, the energy holding, as sources say, is now actively working to double the program. The creation of the commission, as stated in official materials, is aimed at “increasing the efficiency of the investment policy” of the energy holding. “For this purpose, all investment projects of the parent company and its subsidiaries and affiliates, submitted for approval by the board of directors, will undergo preliminary consideration and discussion by the commission, - RAO says in a statement - In addition, the commission will monitor the implementation of investment projects. One of the functions of the commission is also to prepare proposals and recommendations for improving both the internal and state regulatory framework for the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia. aimed at increasing the efficiency of the investment process in the electric power industry.”
A month ago, at an in-person meeting of the board of directors of RAO, it was decided to approve the idea of creating such a commission. “In principle, this is correct,” says one of the energy specialists. “There must be centralization in decision-making on investments, because if everything is handed out to the general directors of RAO subsidiaries, you can get complete chaos in investment activities, and it will be unclear where to look for money later when there is not enough energy.”
However, the appointment of Mr. Abyzov as head of the commission was initially opposed by the Ministry of Economic Development, which considered that he would be able to lobby the interests of his company. Yesterday, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade confirmed to Interfax that its position has not changed: a representative of the ministry said that a letter had been sent to RAO with a proposal to submit proposals on the personal composition of the investment commission to an in-person meeting of the board of directors on December 8, as well as to select its head from several candidates. Among the candidates for this post, various sources named Alexander Ryazanov, who in November was relieved of his posts as deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom and president of Gazprom Neft, as well as the head of Gazprombank Andrei Akimov. However, according to a source close to RAO, Mr. Ryazanov’s candidacy arose after the absentee vote was held (according to the source, Gazprom’s representative on the RAO board, Kirill Seleznev, was categorically against Mr. Ryazanov’s candidacy), in in which neither the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade German Gref nor his deputy Kirill Androsov participated. By the way, against the will of representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the board of directors is meeting for the second time this year - Mr. Gref actively opposed the additional issue of Mosenergo in favor of Gazprom, and as a result, the decision was made on the day when the minister was on a business trip.
Apparently, it was Mr. Abyzov’s candidacy that forced three members of the board of directors of RAO, representing private shareholders, to vote “against” - Andrey Bugrov (Interros), Grigory Berezkin (ESN group, represents the interests of Gazprom) and Kirill Seleznev (Gazprom). As the source of Vremya Novostei says, Messrs. Berezkin and Seleznev nominated their candidates, and Mr. Bugrov insisted that the head of the commission should be an independent person.
Vremya Novostey's source in the power engineering market says that even while working at RAO, Mr. Abyzov was going to create a large vertically integrated structure, which would include Power Machines and one of the engineering companies - apparently, it was implied " E4", which at that time was not yet widely known and its connection with Mr. Abyzov was not publicly traced. It was supposed to create such a structure with money from RAO, which was bidding to buy a controlling stake in Power Machines. However, then this idea, as a Kremlin source told Vremya Novostei, met with disapproval from the presidential administration.
Now, when Power Machines is de facto controlled by RAO, and the head of this enterprise is believed to be Mr. Abyzov’s personal friend, RAO Technical Director Boris Vainzikher, the creation of such a vertically integrated structure has become possible - albeit not in the version that was planned earlier.
However, yesterday participants in the power engineering market were simply shocked by the decision of the directors of RAO: “Perhaps from the point of view of Mr. Abyzov, who has maintained close ties with RAO and the ability to receive any information from there, there is no conflict of interest,” says a representative of one of the companies , competing with E4. “But for other market participants, his position as the head of the commission, which also forms the conditions of competitions, is unacceptable.”
Neither side chose to give official comments on the situation yesterday.