Odessaoblenergo To Increase Charter Fund?

At its EGM yesterday Odessaoblenergo (ODEN), shareholders voted to increase the company’s charter fund by 2.9 times through an additional shares issue. Representatives of the National Energy Company of Ukraine (NC ECU), which owns 25.02% of ODEN, voted against the decision. Alexander Paraschiy: The NC ECU response was predictable: as we wrote before, the state holding, NC ECU is not allowed to buy or sale shares of energy companies, and thus cannot participate in additional issues. Note also that to legitimize the additional share issue ODEN’s charter would also have had to been amended which requires at least 75% of votes at the meeting, which is impossible without the NC ECU’s stake. The only case way for the issuance to be approved would be for the state to sell its 25.02% stake (as it plans to do in 2007) before the additional issuance is approved at the EGM.