Tyumen Appooints Former HSBC Chief To Advisory Board

The Tyumen Oil Company, Russia's third largest producer of oil, has said that it has named two British businessmen to an advisory board being created to help the company improve corporate governance and strategy.

The advisory board will be headed by Sir Peter Walters, who was deputy chairman of GlaxoSmithKline Plc from December 2000 until last month, and chairman of BP from 1981-1990. Also named to the board is Sir William Purves, who was a director of the UK arm of Royal Dutch Shell Group and chairman of HSBC Holdings for most of the 1990s.

Russian oil companies, concerned that their shares are priced lower than international peers, have been setting up advisory bodies to improve relations with shareholders. Tyumen, which is privately held, probably will sell Eurobonds later this year, after being forced last month to withdraw a sale after PricewaterhouseCoopers pulled its approval on a company audit.

The two British businessmen's “experience of working at the highest level of international business life will be especially valuable to us given our commitment to achieving standards of corporate governance and financial integrity that are fully in keeping with global best practice,” said Simon Kukes, president of Tyumen's owner, TNK International, according to a company statement.

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