Press releases

API Round Table: The business community supported the minority shareholders of the Ingosstrakh insurance company
The Rusal representative endorsed the view that the BoD of parent companies should consider the activities of their subsidiaries

12/9/2010 | Moscow | Back

The annual round table on “Corporate Governance in Russia: Lessons Learned in 2010” was held yesterday under the auspices of the Association for the Protection of Investors’ rights” (API).

The “Russian Corporate Governance Leaders” prizes were awarded during the round table. Almost unanimously, the largest transnational and Russian members of the Association for the Protection of Investors’ Rights (Alpha Bank, Deutsche Bank, Kit Finance, UK Uralsib, Phillip Morris, Sun Group and others) adopted the decision to award the nomination of “Biased Transaction – with Corporate Governance Irregularities” to OSAO Ingosstrakh.

“We thank the business community for sharing our views (not for the first year) that the decisions made by the governing bodies of Ingosstrakh do not comply with the generally accepted business management practices”, said Media Representative of PPF Investments, Jan Piskáček. “We also fully welcome the statement made at the round table yesterday by Maksim Sokov, Deputy CEO of Rusal, that his company has already started consultations with legislators on the incorporation in the Public Limited Companies Act of provisions establishing a procedure of mandatory examination of the activities of subsidiaries by the Board of Directors of the parent company. In particular, we were happy to hear that Mr. Sokov emphasised the need to apply such provisions to all companies, including OSAO Ingosstrakh. I would like to note in this context that very recently the insurer’s Board of Directors rejected our similar proposal to introduce such a practice in the company. Mikhail Volkov, representing Bazel’s interests on the Ingosstrakh Board, made it clear to us that minority shareholders would not take part in the evaluation of the activities of subsidiaries. This suggests that there is some inconsistency in the positions of Bazel’s top management team, but we are glad to see that the concepts of civilised and transparent business conduct have already begun to take root among Bazel’s directors”, concluded Jan Piskáček.

PPF Investments’ press spokesman, Jan Piskáček
jan.piskacek@ppfinvestments.com