An unemployed former shareholder of a major ammunition plant in the Moscow region is suspected of embezzling 25 percent of its shares. An unemployed former shareholder of a major ammunition plant in the Moscow region is suspected of embezzling 25 percent...

... Monday as chief executive of TNK-BP, plunging the country's No. 3 oil firm deeper into crisis and challenging co-owner BP's grip on the business. His departure reflected a further breakdown in relations between the British oil major and the four Russian shareholders, led by Fridman, who together own the other half of TNK-BP, said a source close to the Alfa-Access-Renova Group, which represents the tycoons. "The AAR consortium has lost confidence in BP as a partner. The status quo cannot continue...

... practices to international standards will hopefully have a positive impact on the further development of Russian law and court practice in this area. Certain steps have already been taken to introduce basic international M&A legal concepts into Russian law. Shareholders agreements were introduced into Russian corporate law a couple years ago. This was done in an effort to legalize shareholders agreements after Russian courts ruled in several cases that foreign law-governed shareholders agreements relating...

The world's biggest aluminum producer RusAl posted an 84 percent drop in first-quarter net profit as prices fell, potentially fueling a shareholder row over the company's refusal to sell its stake in Norilsk Nickel. The world's biggest aluminum producer RusAl posted an 84 percent drop in first-quarter net profit as prices fell, potentially fueling a shareholder row over...

Transaero may double dividends paid to shareholders for 2011 when the company's board of directors votes on increasing the payments to 44 kopecks per share at their June 23 meeting. Transaero may double dividends paid to shareholders for 2011 when the company's...

... share purchase in the group by Norway's Telenor. According to a writ of execution, the court imposed a ban on 2011 dividend distribution by the Russian unit of VimpelCom, potentially limiting the company's ability to raise cash for dividend payments to shareholders. The injunction is the latest chapter in a legal case brought by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service following an increase of Telenor's voting stake in VimpelCom, a multinational telecoms group with assets in Russia, the CIS, Italy and North...

... to 13 Australian cents, the biggest drop since Oct. 10, 2008, after a Russian court on Thursday deferred a ruling on the takeover until after the June 30 bid deadline, meaning the offer must be extended if the deal is to proceed. Yelena Yegorova, a shareholder who owns less than 0.001 percent of Magnitogorsk, known as MMK, has claimed the acquisition of Flinders infringes on her interests as a shareholder. Yegorova won a court order on March 30 that prevented MMK from implementing board decisions...

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Foreign shareholders of a Lithuanian natural gas company have agreed to split the utility into three separate units as part of a European Union directive to unbundle energy monopolies and introduce competition. Gazprom, which owns 37 percent of Lietuvos Dujos...

... increase than that which Deputy Prime Minister and former Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin earlier proposed. "We made a decision to increase dividends every year by 20 percent," Sechin said April 16, Interfax reported. "Rosneft is a public shareholder company … if the shareholders make a decision that dividends are [to go up] 25 percent instead of [putting more into] investment, then the investment program will be cut back." The 25 percent increase must be approved by the company's...

... (including those that must be followed by the parties to the agreement), representations and warranties given by the seller with respect to the shares/assets sold, etc.; English law allows the parties in the transaction to execute flexible and transparent shareholders agreements; Finally, the English court system is widely regarded as more effective than the Russian equivalent. The latter argument is one of the strongest and is frequently used both by investors doing M&A deals and foreign advisers working...

... company. Consolidating Moscow's three airports is believed to be a long-term goal of the Transportation Ministry. Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo are already in the process of consolidation, but bringing Domodedovo into the fold will depend on the airport's shareholders. DME, the holding company that owns Domodedovo, has been looking for a buyer for the airport since December, but has apparently been unable to find a private investor willing to stump up the asking price of $5 billion. Those who have expressed...

TNK-BP on Monday postponed a decision on a dividend payout, in a sign of a broadening rift between shareholders BP and a quartet of Russia-connected tycoons. TNK-BP is still looking to replace an independent board director and was unable to decide on the dividend because the board does not have a quorum, the company said. The board has been below full...

... to the new Cabinet under Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, said last month that a window for the Sberbank sale could open up in the late summer or early fall. After dividends, privatization is one of the questions that most worries the bank's minority shareholders, the chairman of Sberbank's committee on cooperation with minority shareholders, Anton Danilov-Danilkin, told reporters Wednesday. They are specifically concerned about the possibility of share-price falls after the stock sale goes ahead...

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works said Friday that shareholders approved its board of director's decision to pay no dividends for 2011. (Reuters) Torgovy Dom Tsentrobuv, Russia's biggest shoe retailer, signed a 5 billion ruble ($157 million) loan agreement with Sberbank until May 22, 2015, the retailer...

... into consideration for international tax planning as well as eurobond schemes.The Finance Ministry has reviewed how a special purpose vehicle is used to issue a eurobond. The main sense of using a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, is to get money from shareholders to the Russian company through the SPV in collaboration with a Russian bank (the SPV lists eurobonds, gets money from entities all over the world and deposits that money in a Russian bank that gives the money as a credit to the Russian company)...

... freedom, fewer imperative norms and wider room for court judgments. In line with proprietary interests and law of contract, the new Civil Code provides for greater distinction of corporate rights, attempting to ensure their better protection in complex shareholder and alike arrangements. So there will be a lot to see and learn in the not too distant future, in particular once one can observe how these new provisions would work in a quite rigid court system. Fundamental Changes — Good Faith Alexander...

The board of Norilsk Nickel recommended a dividend of 196 rubles ($6.17) per share for 2011, up 8.9 percent on last year. The dividend is to be approved at the company's annual shareholder meeting on June 29, Norilsk said. The record date was set for May 24. Last year Norilsk recommended a dividend of 180 rubles per share. The company expects to report a net profit of about $5 billion for 2011, broadly flat on the previous year...

... cross-border M&A deals is diverse but cannot be called successful. When the market is hot, corporates take more risky deals like Norilsk buying Lionore, Severstal buying steel assets in the United States — all of these deals have created losses for shareholders. But when risk trade is off and market conditions are more ascetic deals like buying Goldfields by Norilsk, Mol by Surgutneftegaz or stake in Mail.ru by DST make money for shareholders. Similarly, cross border deals in which international...

... Center, a subsidiary of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has acquired 75.677 percent of Vyborg Shipyard, Interfax reported Wednesday. The deal is worth about 1.8 billion rubles ($60 million). USC acquired 852,866 voting shares from various shipyard shareholders, the largest of which was Nikolai Shamalov, a member of the company’s board of directors. USC president Roman Trotsenko said earlier this year that after closing the deal to acquire Vyborg Shipyard no further assets would be acquired...

... power-generating assets. Sistema, which owns a 50.53 percent Bashkirenergo stake, will control Bashkirenergo's power distribution grid. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012 or first quarter of 2013. Bashkirenergo's and Sistema's shareholders will vote on the proposed reorganization next month. (Reuters)