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2003-08-12
On July 28, 2003 The Institute of Corporate Law and Corporate Governance presented an updated Rating of leading Russian companies judged for the quality of their corporate governance at April 1, 2003
The new corporate governance rating of Russian companies (the CORE-rating) was presented by the Institute for Corporate Law and Corporate Governance on July 28, 2003. The rating reflects the result of the survey of the quality of corporate governance in 25 leading Russian companies in the 1st Quarter of 2003.
Compared to the 4th Quarter of 2002, most companies, covered in the rating survey, saw significant changes in their positions. The experts of the Institute emphasize the following factors among those affecting the dynamics of corporate governance quality indicators: (1) potential or completed restructurings, directly or indirectly affecting companies covered in the rating survey; (2) annual or extraordinary general shareholders meetings held in some companies in the 1st Quarter of 2003, as well as (3) the overall deterioration of information disclosure at the request of shareholders.
A decrease of corporate governance rating is witnessed in companies such as OAO «NK «YUKOS» (-6,39) OAO «Sibneft»(-2,88). This fact is mainly related to higher risks of violations of shareholders' rights during the reorganization of these companies. Worse disclosure of information at the request of shareholders resulted in lower positions for OAO «Tyumen Oil Company» (-5,36), OAO «Irkutskenergo» (-4,74), OAO «AEROFLOT» (-3,51) and OAO «Bashkirenergo» (-3,51).
Some positive dynamic in the 1st Quarter of 2003 was demonstrated by OAO «Severstal» (+5,6), OAO «LUKOIL» (+3,5), OAO «Rostelecom» (+2,1) and OAO «Volgatelecom» (+2,1). In most cases these positive changes are due to the improvements in information disclosure.
For example, «Severstal» disclosed information about its shareholders, owning in total over 80% of shares; quarterly reports now contain a more complete presentation of material facts of the company operations; the response time to shareholders' requests was reduced to 1 month. In addition, the company's web site became more informative.
AO «Vympelcom» and OAO «GMK «Norilsk Nickel» still remain the leaders of corporate governance rating.
The group of outsiders did not see much change neither - OAO «Rosneft-Purneftegaz», OAO «GAZ» and AO «AvtoVAZ». OAO «GAZ» provided information on the 1st Quarter of 2003 only in late July, which made this company a leader in negative rating dynamics (-6,6).
Overall, the results of the new CORE-rating survey show a certain deterioration of corporate governance in Russian companies: the average rating for the 1st Quarter of 2003 went down almost to the level of the 1st Quarter of 2002. The experts of the Institute believe that this change is first of all explained by higher risks of reorganization of companies covered in the rating, as well as to inferior quality of information disclosure.
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