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- founded in 1993, today "LENTA" is one of the leading Russian enterprises specialising in classic wholesale trade and retail sphere on the self-service principle.
- Its parent company, Lenta Ltd is registered in British Virgin Islands
- Zherebtsov O.V. has been the “face of the company” from the very start; instead of selling the business, he developed it – he alluded to negotiations with Wal-Mart in the media but no reports that he clearly had that
- He became partner with August Meyer - former deputy prosecutor and San Diego resident (US)
- Major shareholders of the business: Zherebtsov – 35%, August Meyer – 36% and EBRD 11%
- EBRD loans to the company: $30mil in 2004; $125mil in 2007
- There’s only speculative news regarding Zherebtsov’s decision to become partner with Meyer – business related issues (Zherebtsov wanting to concentrate on something else or Zherebtsov wanting to develop the business)
- Zherebtsov and Meyer are currently battling in court over control – Zherebtsov ousted Sergei Yushchenko as CEO as he says Yushchenko is Meyer’s man and prepared documents to sell the company without informing the others; after that Meyer used his influence to reinstall Yuschenko and then again Vladimir Sekin (Zherebtsov’s man) was elected CEO
- Latest news say that Lenta may sell a stake of as much as 20 percent to raise funds for new superstores
- On Lenta’s activity:
▪ "LENTA" represents 6 trade complexes in area from 4 800 to 20 000 sq. km located close to the city's main highways;
▪ "LENTA" trade complexes are notable for their ware's high quality, proper production, vegetable, fruit, meat and fish departments availability, spacious parking and round-the clock services;
▪ Average trade extra makes up 11% (other companies vary from 15%);
▪ Range of commodities numbers 8000 items. Term of inventory turnover averages 8-10 days;
▪ Discount Cards System presents more than 300 000 fixed customers;
▪ The number of checks per 1 day in 5 trade complexes averages 35 000 items;
▪ The Company's Staff is 2430 people including 125 office members;
▪ The Company possesses the modern informational system to offer customers the range of goods they need; to maintain optimal stock resources in each trade complex and to provide the staff with all necessary information in the real time order;
▪ One of the main objectives of the Company is to become a leader on St. Petersburg's retail market and regional retail markets of the Northwest area of Russia.
List of "LENTA" Companies:
▪ "LENTA-1", 16 Energetikov Avenue,
▪ "LENTA-2", 112 Savushkina St,
▪ "LENTA-3", 33 Pulkovskoe Highway,
▪ "LENTA-4", 69 Bukharestkaya St,
▪ "LENTA-5", Vyborgskoye Highway (to be opened in September 2004),
▪ "LENTA-6", 159 Tallinskoye Hyghway.
|Contact telephone numbers: |+7 (812) 380-61-33, 380-61-50 |
|E-mail: |ot@ |
Sources:
Thursday, February 14, 2008. Issue 3842. Page 5.
Lenta Mulls Sale to Fund Superstores
BLOOMBERG
Lenta, the country's third-biggest food retailer, may sell a stake of as much as 20 percent to raise funds for new superstores.
Managers have held talks with "a number of well-known investment funds" on selling a holding of at least 15 percent, chief executive Vladimir Senkin said Wednesday at a news conference. A transaction may be completed within three months, he said, adding that Lenta also may sell bonds by the end of the year to help fund expansion.
The company has said it may hold an IPO or sell a stake this year to fund expansion as rising incomes enable more Russians to buy food in stores instead of open markets. Sales rose 53 percent to $1.56 billion in 2007 at Lenta, which aims to keep revenue growth above 50 percent in coming years, Senkin said.
"We will continue to develop, and this requires additional financial resources," he said. "The initial public offering remains an open question. A private placement is most suitable now, but in a year or two that may change."
The company's shareholders are battling in court for control of the company after disagreeing on growth funding. A judge in the British Virgin Islands is hearing cases filed by founder Oleg Zherebtsov against co-owner August Meyer and another case mounted by Meyer against Zherebtsov, Meyer's spokeswoman said Jan. 30.
Zherebtsov, who owns a 35 percent stake, installed Senkin last month after ousting Sergei Yushchenko.
Lenta Dispute Heard by Court
Bloomberg
MOSCOW — Shareholders of Lenta, the country’s third-biggest food retailer, are battling in court for control of the company after failing to agree on funding for expansion.
A judge in the British Virgin Islands is hearing cases filed by Lenta founder Oleg Zherebtsov against co-owner August Meyer and another mounted by Meyer against Zherebtsov, Meyer’s spokeswoman said Wednesday. The partners planned last month to replace the company’s board because of the disagreement.
Lenta has said it may hold an initial public offering or sell a stake this year to fund store openings as rising incomes enable consumers to turn away from open markets. Zherebtsov ousted Sergei Yushchenko as chief executive earlier this month, a step that Meyer has said was taken without board approval and has vowed to fight in court.
Yushchenko joined an “alliance with a small group of shareholders and prepared documents to sell the company” without his approval, Zherebtsov, who also is chairman, said in a statement dated Jan. 25 and e-mailed Jan. 28.
[pic][pic]
Tuesday, January 29, 2008. Issue 3830. Page 7.
Lenta's U.S. Co-Owner Seeks Redress
By Tai Adelaja
Staff Writer
|[|[pic] |
|p|Alexander Belenky / MT |
|i|Shoppers at a Lenta store. Meyer says he will not |
|c|return to Russia until he has recovered his stake in |
|]|the company. |
|[pic] |
August Meyer, the U.S. co-owner of St. Petersburg-based supermarket chain Lenta, is seeking to recover his stake in the company after his Russian business partner, Oleg Zherebtsov, replaced the CEO in an apparent attempt to gain control.
Meyer, who owns 36 percent of Lenta's British Virgin Islands-registered parent company to Zherebtsov's 35 percent, said in an interview that the company had been "stolen away" from him in a classic violation of corporate ethics.
A simmering conflict between the company's two main shareholders blew up early this month when Zherebtsov fired CEO Sergei Yushchenko, a Meyer loyalist, in a move apparently aimed at strengthening control over the chain before a planned initial public offering.
The boardroom struggle now looks likely to scupper that IPO, however.
"We now have someone in our St. Petersburg office who says he is the CEO and has actually been firing people," Meyer said by telephone late last week from the British Virgin Islands.
Meyer said he had filed a lawsuit in a British Virgin Islands court to recover his stake in the company and that he would not return to Russia until he received a court ruling declaring the seizure illegal. "I am not here on vacation," Meyer said.
|[pic][pi| |
|c] | |
The other shareholders in Lenta include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which last year paid $125 million for an 11 percent stake.
Meyer reacted to Yushchenko's firing by calling a Jan. 15 shareholders meeting of Lenta Ltd, the parent company that owns a 100 percent stake in OOO Lenta. The meeting reinstated Yushchenko by a majority vote, according to a statement issued by four shareholders, including Meyer.
But a board meeting of OOO Lenta the next day called by Zherebtsov voted to fire Yushchenko again and appointed Vladimir Senkin as general director and member of the board.
Zherebtsov said the conflict was prompted by his decision last year to start a new retail chain of his own, called Norma. He said Meyer took his decision as "a personal insult."
"[Meyer] was not pleased by my decision ... to develop ... the Norma one-stop store format," Zherebtsov said in a statement.
Meyer then asked Zherebtsov to step down as the company's general director, and Zherebtsov moved to assume the position of board chairman instead.
Zherebtsov claimed that Meyer also asked him to quit as board chairman and sell his stake in the company. Meyer denied this, however, and insisted that his business partner had quit as general director of his own accord.
"He resigned his position before I even knew about Norma," Meyer said. "I never asked him to sell his shares. It's a complete lie."
Meyer insisted that Zherebtsov and Senkin were illegally taking over Lenta.
"We will see whether [Zherebtsov] will defy a court in the British Virgin Islands," Meyer said.
Meyer hinted, however, that an out-of-court settlement was still possible.
"There's always a chance if he and Senkin stop their assaults on the company," Meyer said. "We are always ready to discuss the problem, and the problem is the illegal assault on the company."
Lenta operates 26 hypermarkets across the country and owns several shopping centers, including in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan and Barnaul.
The company reported revenues of $1.02 billion in 2006, compared with $653 million in 2005.
Shareholders of BVI-registered Lenta Ltd continue arguing publicly
Filed under: Takeovers, British Virgin Islands, BVI Courts, BVI Companies — Mike @ 11:27 am
The shareholders of St. Petersburg retail chain Lenta August Meyer and Oleg Zherebtsov continue emotional discussions and mutual accusations, trying to force each other out from company’s management. By words of an American shareholder, the subject of conflict and disagreement is about the illegal takeover of Lenta LLC by two of the main shareholders - Oleg Zherebtsov and Vladimir Senkin. Lenta LLC, the retail chain that operates 26 hypermarkets across Russia, is fully owned by Lenta Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, and its takeover was not approved by the majority of BVI company’s board of directors and, actually, by any other Lenta shareholders.
The conflict arose from the dismissal of Lenta LLC’s general director Sergei Yushchenko. After his contract expired, the majority of members of the board voted to appoint Vladimir Senkin to the position of general director. Senkin was proposed by Oleg Zherebtsov, the founder of Lenta who holds 35% stake. Meyer, who is the owner of 36%.4 stake, opposed the decision and held an extraordinary meeting of Lenta Ltd.’s shareholders where elected a new board of directors and voted to retain Yuschenko as general director of Lenta LLC and CEO of the BVI company.
Zherebtsov said that Meyer demanded his resignation from the position of general director of Lenta LLC at the end of 2006, and after this was done he demanded his resignation from the position of chairman of Lenta Ltd. and the sale of his shares, but this was refused. After the refusal of Zherebtsov, Meyer and Yuschenko tried to sell the BVI company to an outside investor, probably to another Russian retail chain.
Alexander Arbouzov, lawyer at Beiten Burkhardt St.Petersburg, indicated that if Lenta Ltd. owns 100% of the shares of Lenta LLC, the board of directors of Lenta LLC should be elected on the BVI where the parent company is incorporated by its shareholders. He could not conclude that one of the shareholders is trying to take over the company. Probably the dispute will be solved with the BVI court.
Lenta Shareholder Rift Continues in Public
By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
Staff Writer
|[pic] |
|Bloomberg |
|Sergei Yushchenko was dismissed and then reinstated as CEO|
|of Lenta Ltd this month in connection with the dispute. |
The main shareholders of St. Petersburg-based retail chain Lenta this week issued statements that were rich with emotional comments and accusations as they continue to try to oust each other from the company’s management after disagreeing over strategy.
“This dispute is about one thing only — the illegal takeover of Lenta LLC by Oleg Zherebtsov and Vladimir Senkin. Neither the majority of Lenta Ltd’s board of directors nor any single other Lenta shareholder supports them in the takeover,” said August Meyer, an American shareholder who owns a 36.4 percent stake, in his statement Tuesday.
“He’s defying the shareholders and the board of directors. Soon we will see if he chooses to defy the British Virgin Island court,” Meyer said of Zherebtsov’s actions.
Lenta Ltd, which is registered on the British Virgin Islands, owns Lenta LLC — a retail chain that operates 26 hypermarkets across Russia and has eight sites under construction.
The conflict escalated earlier this month with the dismissal of Lenta LLC’s general director, Sergei Yushchenko. When his contract expired, four out of seven members of the board voted in favor of appointing Vladimir Senkin to the position of acting general director. Senkin was proposed by Oleg Zherebtsov, the founder of Lenta who holds a 35 percent stake.
Meyer opposed the decision and held an extraordinary meeting on Jan. 15th of Lenta Ltd. shareholders, who elected a new board of directors and voted to retain Yushchenko as Lenta Ltd’s CEO and general director of Lenta LLC.
The newly elected board of directors consisted of nine people instead of seven — Oleg Zherebtsov, August Meyer, Sevki Acuner, Loren Bough, Dmitry Kostygin, Greg Lykin, Sergei Yushchenko, Mikhail Leshchenko and Vladimir Senkin, according to the statement issued by Meyer.
“August Meyer is involving the company and its shareholders in his game. In 2006, he did not like my decision to develop independently a new retail chain called Norma,” said Zherebtsov.
“He demanded my resignation from the position of general director of Lenta LLC at the end of 2006. To pacify him and in the interests of the company I quit. Then Meyer demanded my resignation from the position of chairman of Lenta Ltd. and the sale of my shares,” Zherebtsov continued.
“On my refusal, he and his ally Sergei Yushchenko tried to sell the company to an outside investor, presumably to another Russian retail chain. As far as I know, they employed a Russian investment bank for that purpose and tried to start due diligence of the company for sale,” Zherebtsov said.
Having failing to do so, Meyer then put pressure upon other shareholders and members of the board by making unethical and obscene statements about them, Zherebtsov said.
Zherebtsov said that Meyer did not inform shareholders about the extraordinary meeting in due time, against the requirements of the company’s charter.
“We had to change general director in order to ensure the development and stability of Lenta. The candidate appointed to this position could not be underestimated. Now the company is in reliable hands and will develop rapidly,” Zherebtsov said.
The main task for Senkin would be to develop economy-class hypermarkets in highly competitive regional markets that are difficult to enter, Zherebtsov said, pointing out that Senkin was in charge of regional expansion when it started to expand in 2006.
“Lenta will open 10-15 new stores a year for the next three years. The split between shareholders will not affect our operations,” Senkin said.
Alexander Arbouzov, lawyer at Beiten Burkhardt St. Petersburg, indicated that if Lenta Ltd owns 100 percent of Lenta LLC’s shares, then the board of directors of Lenta LLC should be elected on the British Virgin Islands where the parent company is based by its shareholders.
“As far as I know from media reports, one of the shareholders was seemingly dissatisfied with the management of Lenta LLC, which acted in support of his opponent. Naturally, he wanted to change the managers who were not loyal to him. One shareholder considered this decision to be lawful and the other considered it illegal. Only the British court can determine who is in the right,” Arbouzov said.
As for ousting the general director, Arbouzov said that according to Russian legislation, the board of directors (if it exists) of a limited liability company usually appoints and removes the general director. However, under the company’s charter the shareholding company (Lenta Ltd) could have authority over the issue, he added.
“I would not conclude that one of the shareholders is trying to take over the company. Disputes over the management of Lenta LLC are likely to stop once the shareholders come to an agreement on a public offering of shares,” Arbouzov said.
In any case, only Lenta’s competitors would benefit from prolonged court investigations, Arbouzov warned.
8 December 2004
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EBRD backs Russian retailer Lenta
$30 million loan to help St Petersburg chain continue its expansion
Lenta Group is to continue its rollout of warehouse club-style stores across St Petersburg with the help of a $30 million loan from the EBRD.
The seven-year loan will help finance construction of three stores over the next 12-18 months, increasing by 50 percent the number of Lenta outlets in St Petersburg.
Lenta is at the vanguard of an emerging trend in Russian food retailing: large cash-and-carry warehouses, open 24 hours a day, carrying a wide range of merchandise at competitive prices.
Hans Christian Jacobsen, Director of the Agribusiness Team at the EBRD, said the Bank is pleased to support one of the most successful retailers in Russia, where there is a still a significant shortage of modern efficient retail and therefore a good opportunity for new investments.
The Bank’s investment should ultimately benefit Russian consumers through higher quality goods and increased range of products sold at lower prices, Mr Jacobsen added. At the same time, Lenta’s financial transparency and best-practice corporate governance may serve as a model for other Russian retailers.
Oleg Zherebtsov, CEO of Lenta Group, said the company's strategy is to be an early mover in the emerging warehouse-club market, and that Lenta welcomes the EBRD’s support.
Established in 1993, Lenta Group is a leading food retailer in St. Petersburg, with six cash-and-carry stores and expected annual sales of $430 million in 2004.
The EBRD is the single largest financial investor in Russia, with commitments totalling €5.5 billion as of June 30, 2004. Across its 27 countries of operations, the Bank has invested €3.5 billion in 213 agribusiness projects.
17 May 2007
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EBRD invests $125 million in Russian food retailer Lenta
Bank takes equity stake to finance Lenta’s regional expansion
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”) is investing $125 million to purchase a minority stake in Lenta, a leading St. Petersburg-based food retailer, by subscribing to a new issue of the company’s ordinary shares. The transaction is the EBRD’s biggest equity investment in Russia outside the financial sector.
Retail is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Russian economy and the EBRD investment will fund the group’s expansion beyond its St. Petersburg home-base by bolstering Lenta’s capabilities to acquire new land plots, as well as to construct, equip and launch its large-format food retail stores across Russia’s regions where 90 percent of the population lives.
Alain Pilloux, EBRD Business Group Director for Russia, said the Bank was pleased to continue supporting the regional expansion of Lenta, a company which has made financial transparency and good corporate governance a high priority. He described the transaction as a good example of long-term partnership with a successful Russian company.
Sergei Yuschenko, CEO and General Director of Lenta, said EBRD’s equity investment was a sign of confidence in the group’s strategy, as well as in the growth prospects of the Russian retail market. This investment, by a first-class institutional investor like EBRD, will help establish Lenta as the market leader in its segment of large-format retail and help to finance its national expansion efforts, Mr. Yuschenko added.
The group, which was founded in 1993, operates 10 stores in St. Petersburg and has recently opened five stores in the Russian regions including two in Novosibirsk, and one each in Astrakhan, Tyumen, and Volgograd. The company has set itself the target of becoming a premier large-format Russian retailer nationwide in the next few years and has an extensive pipeline of hypermarkets in advanced stages of development. Its retail concept adapts to Russian conditions the best business models taken from leading food retailers around the world.
The equity investment is the third EBRD project involving Lenta, following two loans made in 2004 and 2006. As part of the deal, the EBRD takes a seat on the firm’s Board of Directors and its Audit Committee. An EBRD representative thus joins current Lenta Board members Oleg Zherebtsov (Chairman), Sergei Yuschenko (CEO and General Director) and non-executive Directors including Loren Bough (shareholder), Greg Lykins (Main Street Trust, Inc.), Bill Woodard (former executive of Wal-Mart) and Rob Voss (former executive of Wal-Mart).
Other details of this transaction were not disclosed. Lenta has increased its retail sales from $653million in 2005 to $1.016 billion in 2006. In 2005, Lenta operated 58,100 square meters of sales area. Currently, Lenta has 103,000 square meters of sales area open throughout Russia.
In the agribusiness sector alone, EBRD has to date committed more than €4.5 billion in 320 projects across Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The EBRD is on May 20-21 holding its 16th Annual General Meeting in Kazan, capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.
Trouble At The Top
By Anna Shcherbakova
It may not be obvious to shoppers at Lenta, but the city’s largest retail chain is the object of a serious conflict between its shareholders.
Lenta was founded in 1993 by the entrepreneur Oleg Zherebtsov and his partners. Along with O’Key and Pyatorochka, it is a local business that has expanded into a national chain. Unlike pricey Moscow-based supermarket chains like Seventh Continent or Perekryostok, Lenta was a classic cash-and-carry that transformed into the sort of economy hypermarket that helps thrifty consumers save both time and money. I can even remember being asked by an arrogant acquaintance: “Don’t you go to Lenta? It’s very fashionable to go there, everyone does.”
Since then, new players have opened their stores in St. Petersburg, Pyatorochka has merged with Perekryostok, and international giants like Wal-Mart and Carrefour are expected to enter the Russian market. But Lenta kept on growing, and retained its clientele.
Zherebtsov was the face of the company. He was available for journalists on his mobile phone almost around the clock. He brought back new ideas from traveling abroad. He alluded to negotiations with Wal-Mart. He changed his partners in all probability, but being a private company, Lenta was not obliged to disclose this information.
In 2006, Zherebtsov announced his new partner — former deputy prosecutor and San Diego resident August Meyer. We can only speculate on his motives. At the time, he was already committed to being both manager and shareholder — a combination which usually causes deep inner conflict. Presumably he wished to capitalize on his success and move on to other projects. New development requires considerable investment, so Lenta’s founder considered holding an IPO.
By the end of 2007, all these plans had failed and the former partners had become opponents. It came to light at the beginning of January that Zherebtsov, who owns about 35 pecent of the company, and Meyer, whose share is about 36 percent, have different opinions about who the company’s CEO is and who makes up the board of directors, and are having it out in the courts. Both sides are filtering information about the case through their PR-services, but are quiet concerning the motives of the conflict. I can only imagine that they could not come to an agreement over the future of Lenta. Perhaps one wished to sell it, another to hold on to it. Or possibly their estimations of the company’s value differed, along with their need for cash. It’s a common situation for any business, and over the past few decades we have observed numerous shareholder conflicts in Russian companies, the only difference being that they had usually been privatized, not built from scratch. The involvement of an American prosecutor presents a glimmer of hope that the problem will be resolved without criminal means or governmental interference.
I’ll dare to predict what will happen next. While the courts are doing their job, both sides will try to dilute their opponent’s share in the company by issuing new shares. A number of new cases questioning the legality of these issuances will follow while both sides will simultaneously exchange a number of accusations. The chain will cease to develop or even regress. Prospective investors will be pleased, since Lenta’s estimated value may well decrease.
Anna Shcherbakova is the St. Petersburg bureau head of business daily Vedomosti.
|Lenta Shareholder Rift Continues in Public |
|By Yekaterina Dranitsyna |
|Staff Writer |
|[pic] |
| |
|Bloomberg |
|Sergei Yushchenko was dismissed and then reinstated as CEO of Lenta Ltd this month in connection with the dispute. |
| |
| |
| |
|The main shareholders of St. Petersburg-based retail chain Lenta this week issued statements that were rich with emotional |
|comments and accusations as they continue to try to oust each other from the company’s management after disagreeing over |
|strategy. |
|“This dispute is about one thing only — the illegal takeover of Lenta LLC by Oleg Zherebtsov and Vladimir Senkin. Neither the |
|majority of Lenta Ltd’s board of directors nor any single other Lenta shareholder supports them in the takeover,” said August |
|Meyer, an American shareholder who owns a 36.4 percent stake, in his statement Tuesday. |
|“He’s defying the shareholders and the board of directors. Soon we will see if he chooses to defy the British Virgin Island |
|court,” Meyer said of Zherebtsov’s actions. |
|Lenta Ltd, which is registered on the British Virgin Islands, owns Lenta LLC — a retail chain that operates 26 hypermarkets |
|across Russia and has eight sites under construction. |
|The conflict escalated earlier this month with the dismissal of Lenta LLC’s general director, Sergei Yushchenko. When his |
|contract expired, four out of seven members of the board voted in favor of appointing Vladimir Senkin to the position of acting |
|general director. Senkin was proposed by Oleg Zherebtsov, the founder of Lenta who holds a 35 percent stake. |
|Meyer opposed the decision and held an extraordinary meeting on Jan. 15th of Lenta Ltd. shareholders, who elected a new board of|
|directors and voted to retain Yushchenko as Lenta Ltd’s CEO and general director of Lenta LLC. |
|The newly elected board of directors consisted of nine people instead of seven — Oleg Zherebtsov, August Meyer, Sevki Acuner, |
|Loren Bough, Dmitry Kostygin, Greg Lykin, Sergei Yushchenko, Mikhail Leshchenko and Vladimir Senkin, according to the statement |
|issued by Meyer. |
|“August Meyer is involving the company and its shareholders in his game. In 2006, he did not like my decision to develop |
|independently a new retail chain called Norma,” said Zherebtsov. |
|“He demanded my resignation from the position of general director of Lenta LLC at the end of 2006. To pacify him and in the |
|interests of the company I quit. Then Meyer demanded my resignation from the position of chairman of Lenta Ltd. and the sale of |
|my shares,” Zherebtsov continued. |
|“On my refusal, he and his ally Sergei Yushchenko tried to sell the company to an outside investor, presumably to another |
|Russian retail chain. As far as I know, they employed a Russian investment bank for that purpose and tried to start due |
|diligence of the company for sale,” Zherebtsov said. |
|Having failing to do so, Meyer then put pressure upon other shareholders and members of the board by making unethical and |
|obscene statements about them, Zherebtsov said. |
|Zherebtsov said that Meyer did not inform shareholders about the extraordinary meeting in due time, against the requirements of |
|the company’s charter. |
|“We had to change general director in order to ensure the development and stability of Lenta. The candidate appointed to this |
|position could not be underestimated. Now the company is in reliable hands and will develop rapidly,” Zherebtsov said. |
|The main task for Senkin would be to develop economy-class hypermarkets in highly competitive regional markets that are |
|difficult to enter, Zherebtsov said, pointing out that Senkin was in charge of regional expansion when it started to expand in |
|2006. |
|“Lenta will open 10-15 new stores a year for the next three years. The split between shareholders will not affect our |
|operations,” Senkin said. |
|Alexander Arbouzov, lawyer at Beiten Burkhardt St. Petersburg, indicated that if Lenta Ltd owns 100 percent of Lenta LLC’s |
|shares, then the board of directors of Lenta LLC should be elected on the British Virgin Islands where the parent company is |
|based by its shareholders. |
|“As far as I know from media reports, one of the shareholders was seemingly dissatisfied with the management of Lenta LLC, which|
|acted in support of his opponent. Naturally, he wanted to change the managers who were not loyal to him. One shareholder |
|considered this decision to be lawful and the other considered it illegal. Only the British court can determine who is in the |
|right,” Arbouzov said. |
|As for ousting the general director, Arbouzov said that according to Russian legislation, the board of directors (if it exists) |
|of a limited liability company usually appoints and removes the general director. However, under the company’s charter the |
|shareholding company (Lenta Ltd) could have authority over the issue, he added. |
|“I would not conclude that one of the shareholders is trying to take over the company. Disputes over the management of Lenta LLC|
|are likely to stop once the shareholders come to an agreement on a public offering of shares,” Arbouzov said. |
|In any case, only Lenta’s competitors would benefit from prolonged court investigations, Arbouzov warned. |
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