Great pleasure

TNK-BP Holding held its annual meeting of shareholders

Yesterday the TNK-BP holding held its annual meeting of shareholders. Deputy Chief Managing Director of the TNK-BP group Maxim Barsky (pictured) , who will become the head of the company early next year, used the opportunity to demonstrate his leadership qualities: he tried to prove to minority shareholders that the group would not suffer in any way from BP’s financial problems. Moreover, as Mr. Barsky stated, the Russian-British company may acquire part of the assets of the British company.

The net profit of the TNK-BP holding in 2009 according to Russian accounting standards amounted to almost 200 billion rubles, which is 2.4 times more than in the previous year. The main shareholder of the TNK-BP subsidiary is Novy Investments Ltd, also part of the group, and about 5% of the shares belong to minority shareholders. The company pays dividends to all shareholders twice a year, as required by its charter. Interim dividends for the first nine months of 2009 amounted to 7.41 rubles. per share. Yesterday, shareholders approved dividends for the entire year - 2.12 rubles. per share. Thus, in total, the owners of the company’s securities will receive almost 148 billion rubles, i.e. almost 74% of net profit. According to the holding's chief financial officer, Jonathan Muir, the funds received by Novy Investments Ltd. as dividends, will be reinvested by TNK-BP to finance its activities in Russia in the field of geological exploration, production, refining and marketing.

The minority shareholders decided to get the company to report on how the amount of payments is determined. One of them, for example, was interested in why last year the company gave all its net profit to security holders, and this year only 74%. The shareholder recalled that at the end of 2007 he earned much more. Mr. Muir, with all British restraint, tried to prove that this year the company earned much more, but it needs to develop, and it can only develop by investing... But this did not help, and more and more shareholders wanted to take part in the discussion. Then Mr. Barsky took the situation into his own hands. “In 2007, oil cost $140, it’s difficult to compare that year with 2008 and 2009. This year the situation changed: oil became more expensive, but export duties also increased. Dynamics are important for a company, dynamics are the main thing,” he addressed the shareholders, who finally understood everything.

The topic of payments to board members at any shareholders meeting is a sensitive one. However, in the TNK-BP holding, remunerations do not amount to impressive amounts. Mr. Lasfargue's activities were assessed at $60,000, and another 20,000 euros will be allocated for compensation. Members of the board of directors from AAR will receive 18.3 thousand dollars each. But representatives of BP are not entitled to such payments - participation in the work of the board is part of their official duties. Minority shareholders immediately asked why this was not part of the job responsibilities of AAR managers, but never received an answer. However, not everyone was so critical. “Bad people ask such questions. I want to thank you for your work. There is no other company in Russia like TNK-BP, it is the best, you treat us very well,” said one of the elderly minority shareholders, addressing the presidium, and added so that all shareholders, without exception, could understand him. -- Great pleasure from your shareholders of TNK-BP. Best regards."

TNK-BP management discussed with shareholders an equally exciting topic - oil leaks in the Gulf of Mexico. Minority shareholders were worried that BP's financial difficulties could affect the state of the Russian-British company. “No, we don’t depend on them in any way. BP, one might say, is a shareholder like you. But the company is not interested in your problems,” said Mr. Barsky. However, as it turned out from his conversation with journalists, BP's problems may still be of interest to TNK-BP. The British company may have to sell off its assets to compensate for the consequences of the environmental disaster, and TNK-BP does not hide the fact that some of them may be of interest to it. “If BP starts selling assets, we will participate in this,” Mr. Barsky said. TNK-BP can finally decide on this issue after a meeting of the board of directors scheduled for July 16. According to Mr. Barsky, then the ten-year development strategy of the company will be considered. However, its main parameters have already been determined. “The company’s annual production growth should be 2% before the commissioning of fields in Yamal and 4% after,” Mr. Barsky said. According to him, these figures already take into account the growth of Rospan's production, which will amount to 8-9 billion cubic meters per year. At the same time, issues regarding the transportation and sale of gas with Gazprom, TNK-BP’s partner in this joint venture, have been practically resolved. The company's gas assets may also be supplemented by fields in Iraq. According to Mr. Barsky, documents have been submitted for prequalification of a gas tender in this country. In addition, TNK-BP has already found a partner in Iraq - Iraq Oil.

But the fate of Kovykta is still in doubt. As you know, TNK-BP initiated bankruptcy proceedings for RUSIA Petroleum, which owns the entire infrastructure and license for the field. According to Mr. Barsky, due to this, the company expects to return the funds invested in the project - $800 million. According to his assessment, the value of the property that is registered with RUSIA Petroleum corresponds exactly to this amount. The bankruptcy procedure, Mr. Barsky believes, will last for a year. Let us recall that the minority shareholder of RUSIA Petroleum, OGK-3, opposed the bankruptcy, the decision of which was made in mid-June by the Arbitration Court of the Irkutsk Region. As Mr. Barsky stated, “TNK-BP does everything according to the law.”

Negotiations are also underway on the purchase of new assets. TNK-BP is interested in purchasing the Pavlodar oil refinery and a network of gas stations in Kazakhstan, which Gazprom Neft is also laying claim to. “We need the Pavlodar oil refinery, but only together with a gas station; if the Kazakhs formulate such a proposal, then we will consider it,” said Mr. Barsky. At the same time, TNK-BP is carefully studying other global assets, primarily in oil refining. In a conversation with Russian journalists, Mr. Barsky limited the region of potential acquisitions to Southeast Asia and the domestic market. But answering a similar question in English to Western journalists, he said that TNK-BP may also have interests in assets in Europe. When Mr. Barsky realized that some of their Russian colleagues also knew English, he had to clarify that the company was interested in working in those regions where tax legislation was favorable: “But not in Germany, for example. And not in the USA."

Kirill MELNIKOV