SOCHI (Sputnik) — Rosneft shareholders replaced the Russian energy minister and Gazprombank's top manager in the new board of directors by candidates proposed by a consortium of Swiss trading and commodities giant Glencore and Qatar's state fund, which had bought a 19.5-percent stake in Russian oil giant in a deal closed early this year, results of Rosneft shareholders' voting at the annual meeting showed Thursday.
Rosneft shareholders had nominated 11 candidates to nine seats in the board of directors. During the meeting, company's CEO Igor Sechin noted that Novak rejected his place at his own will, in order for Rosneft to comply with Moscow and London stock exchanges' listing rule on the mandatory presence of at least three independent directors on the board of directors.
"In fact, such a position of Alexander Valentinovich [Novak] is the support of the company," Sechin said, adding the company had proposed to extend the number of board members to 11 people.
Russian Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov, managing director of Nord Stream 2 AG Matthias Warnig, professor of the Higher School of Economics Oleg Vyugin, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and independent director Donald Humphreys — all nominated by the state-owned Rosneftegaz — have been reelected to the board of directors of Rosneft.
State-owned Rosneftegaz is the majority shareholder of Rosneft with some 50 percent of shares, BP has 19.75 percent, a 19.5-percent stake is owned by QHG Oil Ventures Pte. Ltd. (formerly QHG Shares Pte. Ltd) representing Glencore-QIA consortium. One share belongs to the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo), the remaining shares are in free float.
