Yahoo Finance Petropavlovsk 'mystery investor' speaks out: There's no conspiracy
An adviser to an investor looking to oust the board of Petropavlovsk has denied operating a conspiracy and insisted the move would benefit all shareholders.
Nikolay Lioustiger said that CABS Platform and Slevin, who together hold 9.1pc of the gold miner’s shares, had been “fully transparent” in their campaign, shooting down claims by Petropavlovsk that they were hiding behind “a veil of secrecy”.
“We're hiding nothing – there's no conspiracy,” Mr Lioustiger told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Lioustiger is an adviser to CABS, an offshore trust whose beneficiaries include Evgeny Khata, the chief executive of a cryptocurrency firm in Russia. It is understood Mr Khata set up CABS along with a small group of fellow investors to seek out business opportunities. Previous investments include US oil and gas company Tesoro, now Andeavor.
The beneficiaries of Slevin are believed to be the family of a Russian oil and gas investor named Alexander Schwez.
Explaining CABS’s investment, Mr Lioustiger said: "Petropavlovsk is the most undervalued company in the gold market today, not just in Russia. We've been following the company for at least a year. It's a tremendous opportunity.”
CABS and Slevin have called for the removal of Petropavlovsk’s board and the reinstatement of three former directors at the company’s annual general meeting on June 29. The nominees are former chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy, ex-UK ambassador to Russia, Sir Roderic Lyne, and Robert Jenkins.
Mr Lioustiger met with the trio in March to sound out their willingness to return to the company. He said CABS thought that Dr Masklovskiy was best qualified to finish construction of a major pressure oxidation (POX) plant that is vital to the company’s future, and which had fallen behind schedule.
Petropavlovsk has insisted the plant will be finished by the end of the year, and a company spokesman today said the plant "has conducted activities which are consistent with the general industry definition of 'wet commissioning'".
Mr Lioustiger said: "We believe the three nominees can represent all shareholders to their benefit. Each one is upstanding in their own right with an impeccable record. They will be absolutely independent.”
Petropavlovsk’s board, which was itself installed in a coup last year, has urged investors to vote against the activists, suggesting they may have “nefarious objectives”.
CABS and Slevin have won the support of Petropavlovsk’s biggest investor, Kazakh entrepreneur Kenes Rakishev, although Mr Lioustiger said neither party had met.
"The board's strategy [to attack us] is their only defence,” he said. “They can't talk about their own merits – there's nothing to say about their merits.” Mr Lioustiger is meeting with the City Takeover Panel this week to assuage concerns about CABS’s intentions.
A spokesman for Petropavlovsk said: "The fact a 22.4pc shareholder who claims to be independent of CABS and Slevin has laid out HIS plans for the future strategic direction of the company in a letter should be a worry to independent shareholders. This intensifies the boards suspicion that CABS, Slevin and Mr Rakishev are indeed trying to acquire control of the company by stealth."
Separately, Mr Rakishev has sent an open letter to shareholders calling on them to back CABS and Slevin’s proposals, saying the board “lacks technical ability, [and] has lost the support of its staff”.
With the AGM vote seemingly too close to call, Petropavlovsk has taken the unusual step of organising a live Q&A session over the internet with its new chief executive, Roman Deniskin, tomorrow morning.
Mr Deniskin has been in the role for just eight weeks. The company was without a permanent boss for nine months following Dr Maslovskiy’s resignation in July last year.
