RE: Financial Time on POG This Morning14 Jul 2020 12:47
It now has just four board directors, one of whom is a UGC-appointed nominee.
UGC, which is owned by billionaire Konstantin Strukov and claims to be one of Russia’s five top gold companies with production of more than 450,000 ounces last year, has strongly denied claims it engineered the AGM vote by working in concert with Nikolai Lioustiger, who controls 12 per cent of Petropavlovsk.
However, it has not said why it backtracked on promised support for the board — and until now said nothing on the strategic thinking behind its 22 per cent stake, which it bought in February from billionaire businessman Roman Trotsenko to become Petropavlovsk’s biggest shareholder.
“We are a strategic investor in gold,” UGC said. “We acquired a stake in Petropavlovsk after analysis of publicly available information and having a clear belief that the company has good potential.”
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UGC’s holding has changed hands several times over the past three years, each time leading to boardroom upheaval.
In 2017 it was used by Viktor Vekselberg, another Russian billionaire, to remove Mr Hambro as chairman. That led to Mr Maslovskiy’s resignation as chief executive but a year later the same stake was used by Kazakh businessman and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Kenes Rakishev to reinstate him.
Following last month’s boardroom bloodbath, UGC has said it will support an interim board including Mr Hambro as chairman until Petropavlovsk can hold another general meeting to elect a new slate of directors.
However, Mr Lioustiger has launched legal action to have the interim directors removed.
In court documents seen by the Financial Times, Mr Lioustiger, who has been a shareholder since 2018, claimed Petropavlovsk had tried to “subvert” shareholder democracy with the appointment of the temporary board” and could use an acquisition or convert a bond to dilute his holding.
Gervais Williams, fund manager at Premier Miton Investors, which owns shares in Petropavlovsk, said he was “confused” about the motivation for the recent boardroom ructions, saying Mr Maslovskiy had done “an outstanding job”.
“Maybe there is some aspect of UGC’s operation that would like to have access to pox hub,” he said. “It’s the only rationale I can think of.”
UGC said the pox hub was a “high quality asset” but that it