Mykhailo Stoliar, who became manager of the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant (MAP) late last year by government decision, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the MAP Joint Stock Company. His candidacy was supported by the overwhelming majority of those present at the MAP shareholders meeting and their proxies.
The first legitimate meeting of MAP shareholders became possible after a 30% block of the plant’s shares was sold last March through a commercial tender (the tender was won by Ukrainian Aluminum Ltd.) and the law requiring 60% privatization was fulfilled. The June 17 meeting was attended by 420 shareholders and proxies holding a total 1,465,389,112 shares, which accounts for about 96% of the company’s authorized capital. For less than four hours, meeting participants discussed all twelve items on the agenda: reports of the governing bodies, amendments to the statute, and conclusion of an agreement with the register holder (Mykolayiv-based Your Registrar Ltd.). Mr. Stoliar was elected chairman of the company board of directors by an overwhelming majority. President of Ukrainian Aluminum Herman Tkachenko, who nominated Mr. Stoliar, explained the desirability of his election by the fact that over the six months of Mr. Stoliar’s management MAP had launched optimal work patterns, began to upgrade its plant and equipment, and greatly improved its production indicators: in the five months of this year, MAP turned out 458,000 tons alumina, 28% up on the same period of last year. Mr. Tkachenko himself, representing one of the largest shareholders, became head of the MAP supervisory board, also elected at this meeting.
One of the difficult items discussed at the meeting was how to use the UAH 27-million undistributed profit for 1998-1999. Having considered several options, the participants decided to earmark 15% of this amount to pay dividends, another 1.5 million and change for material assistance to enterprise workers, and the remaining profit of about 21 million hryvnias to replenish the enterprise’s current and fixed assets washed out by previous administrations.
Simultaneously, the meeting approved the MAP development plan: it is planned to produce as early as this year 1.1 million tons of alumina, up 11% from 1999, and 1.2 million tons next year, and to bring the annual output of alumina up to 1.5 million tons after retooling and modernizing the plant. $3.6 million will be invested in the upgrading of the enterprise before year’s end.
Commenting on the results of the meeting, MAP CEO Mykhailo Stoliar and supervisory board chairman Herman Tkachenko, noted that now one can forget about MAP as an enterprise trailed by a string of scandals: “We’ve completed privatization, identified the strategy, set the goals, and the enterprise is working at a stable pace.”
