Company news in April 2004 | |||
Nobody Withdrawing Profits from Russia
A lucky businessman, dollar billionaire, according to the U.S. Forbes magazine (his estate is estimated at US$ 3.3 billion), co-owner of TNK-BP, multi-national oil company, and SUAL, aluminum company, Mr. Victor Vekselberg became known country-wide through purchase of Faberge Easter eggs collection for US$ 100 million from the Forbes Family. In doing so, Mr. Vekselberg was not motivated by charity – he is not indifferent to what Westerners thinks of Russia, yet almost all of his business is closely linked with foreign partners. In his interview, Mr. Vekselberg told about how TNK is changing thanks to the alliance with British BP, about the progress of establishment of SUAL International, a multi-national aluminum company, and why he did not spare money for the famous Faberge egg collection. He noted, "Considering that BP that now holds 50% in TNK has its own business traditions, we should adapt to them. This thing is not always simple, both in details and on the whole. For instance, at first I was simply stricken by the typically British insistence with which they handled occupational safety issues. They start nearly all of their meetings with this issue. Well, if we take a global outlook, TNK must have been the most dynamic company in the country – we have virtually tripled our assets over the last five years. We should not expect the same growth rate from TNK-BP, of course. This is largely accounted for by the decision-making rate typical of our British partners. In addition, BP is still rather cautious about Russia, so any transactions of Slavneft scale can hardly be entered into in the foreseeable future. Slavneft''s split-off between its shareholders, TNK-BP and Sibneft, will require numerous corporate procedures related to separation of new companies and re-distribution of licenses. We have the action plan in place, not agreed upon though. We have to elaborate an array of details. The split-off is put off by the situation in which our partners [in Slavneft split-off] found themselves in connection with another business (92% in Sibneft are held by Yukos, though operating control is in hands of former owners, Mr. Roman Abramovich and his partners, who are attempting at regaining the company''s shares. - Vedomosti). Due to this situation, their willingness to actively deal with the Slavneft project faded away, they feel in no mood for this."
Source: Vedomosti