Seven of 11 places were filled by representatives of Svyazinvest, the state telecoms holding that owns 51 percent of Rostelecom. Shareholders also approved dividends for 2000 of 16 kopeks for ordinary shares and 42 kopeks for preferred shares.
Sergei Kuznetsov was confirmed as general director. He had been acting general director since February, when Nikolai Korolyov resigned citing health reasons. Korolyov was voted to the board.
Minority shareholders' representatives lost one of their two seats, as Millennium Fund's Ulf Persson did not receive repeat confirmation. The sole minority shareholders' representative, Grigory Finger, head of the Moscow office of New Century Holdings, said he could not blame Svyazinvest or Rostelecom management, but rather low turnout from outside investors.
"In the future, shareholders with American Depositary Receipts should take a more active part in the life of the company, including voicing their opinion through voting or through proxy," Finger said at a news conference following the meeting.
"Minority shareholders were not well represented today," he told journalists.
In his first comments to the press since coming on board more than four months ago, Kuznetsov laid out general tasks for the year ahead, including increasing Rostelecom's share price, cutting expenses and making the company more client-oriented.
The company's share price plunged last year from $4.47 in March 2000 to $0.86 at year end. It now stands at $0.88. The company reported a 1.8 billion ruble loss in 2000 after turning a profit of 3.3 billion rubles in 1999 under international accounting standards. It is increasingly losing business to alternative operators.
Kuznetsov is a former colleague of Svyazinvest general director Valery Yashin and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman and in 1995 became the first director of Telecominvest, which Reiman and Yashin helped create in St. Petersburg. He was previously general director of Peterstar, 29 percent owned by Telecominvest.
Media have reported that Rostelecom is in talks to sell stakes in Moscow fixed-line operator Sovintel, which Kuznetsov would not confirm. Sovintel is a 50-50 joint venture with publicly traded Golden Telecom. Finger said Rostelecom might prefer receiving shares rather than cash from Golden Telecom.
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