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Monday, 06.06.2011
Norilsk Nickel: Controversy over Voloshin's fat paypacket
Moscow. Norilsk Nickel's shareholders' meeting is on the horizon and new disputes are looming. The renumeration of the chairman of the board, Alexander Voloshin, who wants to receive the royal sum of $10 million, has aroused resentment.
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The shareholder'ss association ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) criticized Voloshin's enormous hunger for money. At the forthcoming shareholder's meeting on the 21st June, she advises shareholders to vote against the remuneration package for independent board members.
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Payment in tow parts
The payment of the board consists of two components. The base rate for an ordinary board member lies around $450,000. Additionally there is an option to aquire shares in Norilsk Nickel. The total sum of both components should not exceed $1 million.
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The chairman of the board, Alexander Voloshin, has once again special terms. His base fee is $3 million, his bonus calculates for the same amount again and with the option to buy 200.000 Norilsk Nickel shares, the total amount looks to amount to $10 million annually.
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Voloshin not independent
He is too highly ranked for an officially independent candidate of the board, states ISS. The infulential association of shareholders however only recognises 6 of the 25 candidates as being independent and advises the small shareholders to vote only for Bradford Millsand Enos Ned Banda.
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Voloshin, however, is too closesly connected with billionaire Oleg Deripaska, the major shareholder of Rusal, in the view of ISS. Certainly, the aluminium company has a strong interest in Voloshin's appointment.
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When the former head of the Kremlin administration who was nominated by Rusal, surprisingly was not elected to the board last year, it caused a new power struggle between the major shareholder Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin.
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Russian board members are paid well
Independent board members in Russian companies can count on a good income. The remuneration in larger independent companies can amount to $ 300.000-500.000.
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Particularly generous is the company Gazprom, who as an average in 2010 paid out 14.4 million rubles ($450.000 or €360.000), said the Director General, of the Centre for Corporate Development, Mikhail Kunznetsov, at the 'Union of Independent Board Members.
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Former German top managers and politicians benefit from the generosity of Russian companies. former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder runs the pipeline consortium Nord Stream AG (Baltic Sea pipeline), his partner there, Matthias Warnig (Managing Director) is on the board of state owned VTB.
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The former German railway boss, Hartmut Mehdorn, is nominated for the Board of RZD and confirmed to Russia News recently his interest of a candidacy.
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