There's a truce in the battle for control of TNK-BP, the 50-50 Russian joint venture from which European oil giant BP plc gets 20% of its output. Both sides agreed to replace Robert Dudley with a Russian-speaking CEO. The main complaint from Russian billionaires Len Blavatnik, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Victor Vekselberg was that BP treated the JV more as a subsidiary than a partnership. The partners want to buy out BP's 50% stake, but BP said there would be no sale.
Dudley, who left Russia saying he would spend a few weeks recovering from "personal intimidation" in an undisclosed location, will leave by year's end. In early August
the JV lost its CFO James Owen, who tendered his resignation to Dudley, citing an inability to continue working independently as shareholder issues remain unresolved.
Other changes,
TheDeal.com notes, include three new directors independent of either side joining the TNK-BP board, and the number of directors serving TNK-BP's management committee being scaled back from the current 14 members. The board, which will have 11 members, will have to clear the appointment of the new CEO.
A MOU also includes an option to sell up to 20% of a TNK-BP subsidiary through an IPO. 24/7 Wall Street says investors in BP will likely be satisfied with the result, but that the Russians in the venture may not be, since it leaves a foreign company
with a big say in Russia's all-important energy industry.Our sister blog Dealscape notes investors jittery about their holdings in a rich and increasingly aggressive Russia had
two pieces of news to digest on Thursday. -
Baz HiralalGo to the story from TheDeal.comSee the story from Bloomberg.comFrom Dealscape: Investors eye BP's Russian retreat
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The latest on this dispute is that it appears a settlement is in the offing and all is quiet on the Eastern front - for now.. http://www.bsr-russia.com/tnk-bp-resolved