Petropavlovsk shareholder wants review of deals over 3 years

LONDON, Jul 15 (PRIME) -- Everest Alliance Limimted, a minority shareholder of Russian gold producer Petropavlovsk Plc, demands that the company include an independent review of all deals and agreements for the past three years in the agenda of the next shareholder meeting, Petropavlovsk said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Further to an announcement made on July 10, 2020, that it had received a requisition from Everest Alliance Limited, the registered holder of 5% of Petropavlovsk PLC ordinary shares, the company has received a further requisition from Everest,” Petropavlovsk said.

The requisition requests that a special resolution be proposed at a general meeting for the board “to commission an independent forensic investigation to review all transactions and arrangements entered into in the three years preceding the date of this resolution,” the company said.

The investigation should cover the company, any of its subsidiaries or affiliates, IRC Limited and Kimkano-Sutarsky GOK and any of their subsidiaries or affiliates in which current or former managers of Petropavlovsk or IRC Limited or other affiliated people may have been interested. The board suggested choosing either Deloitte, or EY, or KPMG, or PwC for the investigation.

“The purpose of the forensic investigation is to determine if each such transaction or arrangement was carried out in the best interests of the company and to the benefit of its shareholders or otherwise. The independent forensic investigator shall provide a written report detailing its findings. The board shall promptly make available to the shareholders an unredacted copy of the forensic investigator’s report,” the statement read.

Everest is currently suing Petropavlovsk in a London court demanding removal of a temporary board of directors of Petropavlovsk and arrangement of a new general meeting of shareholders.

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