Translated material
A year before the order
Anatoly Chubais takes RAO UES to the finish line
RAO UES of Russia held one of its last shareholder meetings yesterday in Zelenograd. In the fall, the shareholders of the energy monopoly will have to urgently approve a plan for the final stage of the company's reorganization before its division on June 30, 2008. And most likely, a few days before the termination of RAO UES, its shareholders will meet for the last time to consider the results of 2007.Yesterday, RAO shareholders elected their last board of directors. Compared to the previous composition, there were only two changes in it, reflecting the changed balance of power in the structure of the company's two largest shareholders - the state and Gazprom. The federal government, as before, brought in nine of its representatives, replacing the head of Rosenergo Sergei Oganesyan with State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development Andrei Sharonov. The gas monopolist also retained its numerical representation, but now the company of the concern’s board member Kirill Seleznev was not the chairman of the board of directors of ESN Energo Grigory Berezkin, but the general director of SUEK Vladimir Rashevsky. A year ago, Mr. Rashevsky, who represented only the interests of his company, did not have enough votes to retain his seat on the board. But since then, SUEK has announced the merger of energy assets with the gas monopolist, and yesterday some of Gazprom’s votes were cast for it. But Mr. Berezkin’s support has weakened: the first deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, with whom the head of the Unified Social Network interacted, as is known, was expelled from Nametkin .
However, now RAO shareholders are more concerned about the upcoming division of the company . “Investors and analysts are really looking forward to the approval of the scheme for exchanging shares of RAO UES of Russia for shares of OGKs and TGKs,” says Renaissance Capital analyst Avanes Aganesyan. As is known, as a result of the reform, which will end in a year with the cessation of the activities of RAO UES, six wholesale and 14 territorial generating companies, HydroOGK, the Federal Grid Company and a number of others will remain on the market. “The main principle of the reform is that each shareholder of the energy holding will receive in the new companies exactly the same share that he had in RAO UES,” RAO head Anatoly Chubais recalled yesterday, speaking to shareholders.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of RAO Alexander Voloshin confirmed yesterday that there will be no more delays in the energy reform, which will last for several years. The final decisions on the transfer and distribution of the company's assets will be made in September this year at the key extraordinary meeting of RAO shareholders from the point of view of reform, he said. “The completion of structural reforms of the energy holding, including the cessation of its activities, is planned to be carried out no later than June 30, 2008,” Mr. Voloshin said.
The decision to convene an extraordinary meeting will be announced within the next month. And even earlier, according to Mr. Chubais, a bill will be submitted to the Duma describing the mechanisms of control over the energy sector after the completion of the reorganization of RAO. The document, according to him, “provides for strengthening the role of the state in the control of the electric power industry, as well as the creation of a non-profit partnership “Market Council”, which will become a regulator on the part of market participants themselves.” He also mentioned his idea of assigning one of the ministries the functions of control over the industry, noting that the state should “be more actively and purposefully involved in the process of control over the electric power industry.”
Anatoly Chubais, as usual, convinced shareholders that the reorganization would be beneficial for them. “RAO UES is being liquidated, but the company’s assets, their value, will not go anywhere,” he said. “The price of assets that will arise as a result of the reform, the owners of which are the current shareholders of RAO, will be higher than the current valuation of the company.”
Yesterday, shares of the energy holding traded above the market; stock quotes rose by 2.2% (to $1.347) on the RTS and by 1.68% (to RUB 34.751) on the MICEX. The company's capitalization yesterday was about $56 billion.
The new board of directors of RAO UES includes the head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko, the deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development Kirill Androsov, the state secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development Andrei Sharonov, the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy Andrei Dementyev, the head of the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management Gleb Nikitin, the director of the department of industry government development Olga Pushkareva, head of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais, chairman of the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia Alexander Voloshin, deputy chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia Yakov Urinson, member of the board of Gazprom Kirill Seleznev, managing director of CJSC Holding Company Interros Andrey Bugrov, General Director of Siberian Coal Company OJSC Vladimir Rashevsky, Senior Advisor to the Finnish Sitra Fund Seppo Remes and member of the Supervisory Board of Nomos Bank Ilya Yuzhanov.
RAO shareholders yesterday supported the board of directors' proposal not to pay dividends for 2006. In 2006, RAO, as a result of the revaluation of financial investments (shares of subsidiaries and dependent companies that are quoted on the RTS and MICEX), received a net profit of 745.088 billion rubles. Of these, 717.657 billion rubles. -- income from revaluation, which is “paper” profit, which is not backed by real money. The directors of RAO decided that paying dividends to shareholders from net profits that were not fully backed by real cash would lead to disruption of the investment program and a deterioration in the financial condition of RAO. RIA Novosti, REUTERS