Russia's beleaguered oil giant Yukos broke ties Monday with the last of six core shareholders who once controlled the company but are now all facing jail or exile in what many see as a politically-driven campaign.
Yukos said in a statement posted on its Web site that it had dismissed Mikhail Brudno as president of Yukos RM, the company's refining and marketing arm.
Brudno, who owns more than 3 percent of Yukos, was charged last month with embezzlement, joining the other five core company shareholders being pursued by the legal authorities either in Russia or abroad in exile.
"Being guided by a Yukos board of directors recommendation that no shareholders should interfere in the company's operational management, the Yukos management board adopted a decision today to relieve Mikhail Brudno of his duties as president of Yukos RM and as a member of the management board," the statement said.
Yukos, Russia's largest oil producer, has been in prosecutors' firing line since June and its main shareholder and Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was jailed in late October on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Deputy chairman of the board Yury Beilin said in an interview published Monday that "in order to preserve the company" Yukos would restrict "the participation of Yukos employees or resources in any political or other activities of shareholders."
Khodorkovsky resigned as chief executive in November. The second-biggest shareholder, Leonid Nevzlin, who is in Israel, has been financing the election campaign of a liberal opposition candidate in March presidential elections.
Beilin also told the Vedomosti business daily that the company was likely to reduce its dividend payments. Yukos approved a record US$2 billion dividend payout in October last year.
"The management has suggested to the board of directors that we reassess our dividend policy this year to take into account the additional risks which require establishing a financial reserve," he added.
Another company manager told the daily on condition of anonymity that Yukos would now stop using aggressive tax minimization schemes.
Yukos has been hit with a US$3.4 billion tax bill by the fiscal authorities who claim the company misused tax loopholes to evade taxes.
The attack on Yukos is widely seen as politically motivated after Khodorkovsky angered President Vladimir Putin by financing opposition parties before December parliamentary elections, in which pro-Kremlin forces eventually triumphed.
"The board of directors has to do everything it can to remedy the situation," commented Valery Nesterov, an analyst from Troika Dialog brokerage.
"That's why they are trying to build up protection and keep the company intact, by putting distance between them and shareholders," he added.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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