The trial is underway

Investment fund PPF Investments won another lawsuit against Ingosstrakh

The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District overturned a number of provisions on the board of directors of Ingosstrakh. This was announced yesterday by the Czech investment fund PPF Investments, whose structures own almost 40% of the insurer’s shares. As you know, earlier the board of directors of Ingosstrakh (the company is controlled by Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element) decided that only Russian citizens with a financial or legal education, as well as experience in the insurance business, can be directors. PPF Investments considered such requirements, especially those related to citizenship, to be discriminatory. In addition, the court rejected the insurance company's appeal, leaving in force the decision to recognize the legal transaction of the sale of Ingosstrakh shares to the Czechs.

At the same time, the Moscow Arbitration Court yesterday scheduled for September 15 the consideration of the claim of minority shareholders of Ingosstrakh to invalidate the decisions of the annual meeting of shareholders of the insurer. Yesterday, preliminary hearings were held on the claim of the companies included in PPF Investments. It was expected that the Interregional Registration Center (which handled all the paperwork during the preparation and holding of the meeting) would present the court with a writ of execution, according to which the votes of the Czech group were not taken into account. As is known, because of this, candidates from PPF Investments were not elected to the board of directors of Ingosstrakh. As the Czechs' lawyer Yuliy Tai said yesterday, representatives of the MRC did not appear in court, and Ingosstrakh does not know what document they are talking about. It is possible that this writ of execution does not exist at all, the lawyer believes, and accordingly the management of Ingosstrakh is violating the law in the interests of the majority shareholder - the Basic Element holding.

The court decided yesterday that it was time to complete the preliminary stage of the process and begin consideration of the case on the merits. As is known, PPF Investments is seeking to have the results of the shareholders’ meeting declared illegal on the grounds that it was held with a break of a month. According to the minority shareholders, this break was necessary for “Basic Element” to “prepare a performance” with the participation of a certain “executive letter dated July 2, 2008.” In addition, as minority shareholders say, the law “On Joint Stock Companies”, according to which the annual meeting of shareholders must be held before June 30, has not been observed.

As you know, the opposition of the Czech group to Basic Element began last summer, when PPF Investments acquired a stake in the company from businessman Alexander Mamut. Oleg Deripaska’s structures then considered that they should have become the buyers of the package, but the parties failed to reach an agreement. Although the Czechs are still more likely to win in court, they still cannot include their representatives on the board of directors or gain any other opportunity to influence the activities of the insurance company.

Ivan GORDEEV