Who will beat whom

Vladimir Potanin and Guy de Sellier will compete for the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel

The board of directors of Norilsk Nickel is to elect its chairman today . The positions of the two largest shareholders of the nickel giant - the united company Russian Aluminum (RUSAL) and Vladimir Potanin's Interros - diverged on this issue. The former intend to support an independent member of the board of directors, non-executive director of Allied Resource, Guy de Sellier, as chairman. And Interros is going to vote for Mr. Potanin.

As is known, the new board of directors of nine people, elected on June 30, includes three representatives of Interros - Mr. Potanin, Andrey Klishas (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Interros) and Andrey Bugrov (Managing Director of Interros), three representatives of RUSAL - Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Basic Element (controlling shareholder of the aluminum company) Oleg Deripaska, General Director of RUSAL Alexander Bulygin and Mr. Prokhorov. In addition to Guy de Sellier, the independent members of the board are Managing Director of Safeguard International Fund Heinz Schimmelbusch and Director of Stone Tower Capital LLC Michael Levit. However, RUSAL suspects the latter of being affiliated with Interros.

The candidacy of the chairman of the board of directors of Norilsk Nickel is important primarily because, according to the company’s charter, when voting in the event of a tie, he has the casting vote. In turn, to elect a chairman, a simple majority of votes of council members is required.

“We support the candidacy of Guy de Sellier as chairman of the board of directors, since he has been on the board of directors since 2002, has the most experience in the company among independent directors, and knows the company well and its production aspects,” RUSAL told Vremya Novostey. “His appointment as Chairman in today's balance of power will ensure that the interests of all shareholders are respected and fully consistent with the corporate governance standards of a public company.” On Guy de Cellier's side is also Mikhail Prokhorov, a member of the board of directors of Norilsk Nickel, a former co-owner of the company, and now a minority shareholder of RUSAL. He stated that “in the current situation, the election of an independent director would be correct.” However, according to him, if Guy de Sellier does not get the number of votes required for election, he is ready to support Mr. Potanin's candidacy. Interros board member Larisa Zelkova told Vremya Novostey that “the board should be headed by Mr. Potanin.”

Experts believe that at first glance, the strengths of RUSAL and Interros are equal. The outcome of the case will largely depend on how the candidates for the post of chairman themselves vote. It is more likely that they will vote each for themselves. Therefore, the fate of the vote appears to be in the hands of Mr. Schimmelbusch. His position is still unknown.

Irina TSYRULEVA