THE leading independent director at Norilsk Nickel, the £30 billion Russian mining giant, has urged shareholders to vote against a proposed boardroom shake-up.

Guy de Selliers, the veteran banker who chairs a committee of Norilsk’s independent directors, said the election of a group of new directors put forward last week would be “destabilising, and not a good thing for minority shareholders”.

De Selliers’ intervention is the latest twist in the tug of war over Norilsk, one of the world’s leading nickel producers. Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin, oligarchs who were once business partners, are fighting for control. Together, the pair still hold more than 50% of the shares.

Prokhorov is in talks to sell his 25% stake to UC Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium group.

Last week the Prokhorov camp proposed a completely new set of directors. One – as revealed by The Sunday Times last week – is Tye Burt, chief executive of Kinross Gold, one of Canada’s largest gold-mining groups. Among the others are two of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs – Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of UC Rusal, and Oleg Deripaska, also a UC Rusal director.

Shareholders will vote on the board composition at an extraordinary meeting on April 8.

De Selliers said the battle would be viewed as an important test case for corporate governance in Russia. “I very much urge the minority investors to exercise their rights and vote, rather than letting it fall by the wayside. If the minorities demonstrate they are watching the situation, and care about the outcome, it would be a very positive message for Russian,” he said.

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