Before the May holidays the two parties eventually agreed to set up a steering company to be led by the head of Mediasoyuz (a state-controlled union of journalists, formed in its time as an alternative to the opposition-minded Union of Journalists) Alexander Lyubimov, whose task is to help the channel, plagued by low ratings and mounting debts, out of its financial crisis.
Furthermore, the meeting agreed on new rules covering the sale of TVS shares. It was decided that a shareholder willing to sell his stake would henceforth be required first to offer it to other shareholders and if they don’t want to buy they in turn are forced to offer their own stake – the so-called ‘shoot out’ scheme.
Interestingly, that scheme is viable only if the number of shareholders in the company does not exceed 2; otherwise, it loses any sense. The Chubais and Deripaska groups each hold 45 per cent stakes in TVS, and 10 per cent of the company’s shares belong to the editorial staff.
The fact that the ‘shoot out’ scheme was adopted, proves that, despite the large number of shareholders, in reality there are only two of them – the head of the Russian Aluminium Oleg Deripaska and RAO UES chief executive Anatoly Chubais.
Gazeta.Ru has learnt that the other shareholders authorized those two to manage their stakes, acting as sole representatives of their ‘clans’.
After the May break Oleg Deripaska unexpectedly reversed his position, abandoned the idea of a steering company and offered Chubais his stake for $10 million, setting the deadline for a decision for May 23.
According to Gazeta.Ru’s informed sources in media circles, Deripaska hoped that Chubais would not agree to buy his stake in a debt-ridden company (presently, TVS’s debt stands at $70 million) and, in line with the shoot out principle, would be forced to sell him his stake. Deripaska is apparently considering re-selling the channel to another contender, whose name remains secret.
On May 17 Anatoly Chubais met with Vladimir Putin and briefed him on the developments in TVS. Putin listened carefully, and then asked for a time-out for a ''couple of days''. After that meeting Chubais met with Putin several more times, but the president gave no answer.
Sources close to the UES chief said that, in principle, Chubais is ready both to sell and to buy TVS. ''Everything will depend on the president. It is clear that in the election year, considering the political situation, neither for us, nor for the Oleg Deripaska group would it be of advantage to come into ownership of TVS without the go-ahead from the Kremlin.'' For the same reason Deripaska is in no hurry either. Nonetheless, his group has already launched pre-selling arrangements for the channel.
As Gazeta.Ru learned on Wednesday, Vneshekonombank, one of the TVS’s creditors, who the company has failed to repay an expired $40 loan extended a year ago, has blocked $300,000 of proceeds from advertising on the channel’s account.
This was done, allegedly, at the request of the Deripaska group’s Alexander Mamut, who has close ties with the bank’s top management. Mamut on Thursday was unavailable for comment, while the acting director general of TVS Ruslan Terekbayev (who represents Deripaska’s interests on the company’s board) refused to elaborate.
In a conversation with Gazeta.Ru he said that all data concerning the company’s accounts is ''closed commercial information'' and refused to specify on whose orders the sum was blocked.
Such a ruse is unlikely to please Chubais because he is bound to perceive it as pressure. However, the UES chief is sure to use that fact for his own benefit during consultations with Putin. The problem is that Chubais is not fully certain of his TVS partners’ honesty.
According to some reports, while negotiating the deal with Chubais, Deripaska has been holding talks on the fate of the channel with the owner of MNVK (Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation, which formally still holds the licence for broadcasting on the 6th channel) Boris Berezovsky. Deripaska is interested in purchasing his MNVK stake. Lately, Berezovsky, who has never given up hope of reinstating his authority over the channel, has won several lawsuits. Now it is up to the Constitutional Court to decide whether an arbitration court’s order to close MNVK was lawful. And there is every chance, that Berezovsky’s claim will again be upheld.
If the court rules the liquidation of MNVK unlawful, then, Chubais has well-founded apprehensions that he may become the owner of an $80 million dummy.
The president has a difficult choice to make. He gave the green light to TVS as a multi-polar joint stock company, which, by virtue of the disputes and differences among the oligarchs that founded it, still has no distinct policy. Now he has to choose the lesser of two evils.
For his part Chubais seeks guarantees from Putin that if he buys TVS, the president will not allow the rival clan to walk out on the UES chief with the help of MNVK. As regards Deripaska, in this situation he has nothing to do but assume a wait-and-see attitude, for he is in no position to press Putin for an answer either. All that is left for him to do is to plot such pitfalls as freezing the accounts of the channel, which he still co-owns.
30 МАЯ 16:26
