Minority shareholders of BP-TNK claim Rosneft must redeem their shares

The minority shareholders of BP-TNK Plc. haven't obtained any dividends for 2012 and initiated a case against Rosneft claiming that the company should redeem their shares. Lawyers say, in compliance with the technical interpretation of the Company Law, Rosneft doesn’t have to redeem the shares of the minority shareholders.

On August 7th,the minority shareholders of BP-TNK Holding, Viktor Tsobenko and Sergey Davydov initiated two cases against Rosneft in the Moscow Arbitration Court. Tsobenko specified, he asked the court to oblige Rosneft to make the minority shareholders of BP-TNK Holding a public offer “to purchase their securities in the order presupposed by cl. 84.2 of the Company Law”. The shareholder said, there were no “legal reasons” to ask for dividends for 2012. “This is the responsibility of Igor Sechin who damages the investment climate and the value of the shares of Rosneft”, Tsobenko claimed.