Minority Stake Holders Fail To Go To Meeting

A Conoco led group that holds a forty nine percent stake in Ceska Rafinerska AS did not show up at the Czech oil refiner's shareholders' meeting, forcing the cancellation of a meeting that was expected to oust the chief executive.

The US based Conoco, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Agip Petroli International, which together own 49 percent of Rafinerska, oppose plans by majority shareholder Unipetrol AS to fire the Chief Executive Ivan Ottis and replace him with its own CEO. The international oil companies said they need more time to study if plans to oust the chief executive will hurt its interests.

The meeting “did not take place due to the non-presence of the international shareholders,” Unipetrol spokesman Tomas Zikmund said. The meeting was to start at 9 a.m. local time in Kralupy, about twenty kilometers north of Prague.

Unipetrol wants to reassert control over the refining unit after Rafinerska failed to agree on prices it charges for products to another Unipetrol subsidiary, Chemopetrol. Higher prices would benefit the international oil company, while lower prices would help Chemopetrol, which filed the pricing complaint.

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&to=http://www.unipetrol.cz/' target=_blank>UNIPETROL