TNK-BP consortium votes against dividends

THE directors of a consortium of billionaires who co-own TNK-BP have voted against a proposal for the company to pay $1bn in dividends, putting pressure on BP to resolve conflict and ownership issues at the Anglo-Russian oil venture, it emerged yesterday.

British oil major BP and its partners jointly own TNK-BP but are heading for a split after BP put its 50% stake in TNK-BP up for sale last month. “At a time of continuing market uncertainty and while corporate governance at TNK-BP remains strained, we believe that a cautious stance by shareholders is called for,” Stan Polovets, CEO of the AAR consortium which groups the billionaire co-owners, said yesterday.

“A payment now of an additional dividend is not prudent,” he said.

Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Troika Dialog investment bank, said the dividend decision “is just keeping pres- sure on the (ownership) situation … so that everyone stays focused on getting a resolution as quickly as possible”.

Mr Weaver said that AAR’s decision put pressure in particular on BP, which would need to explain the situation to investors when it reported its secondquarter results today.

TNK-BP International said last week that its second-quarter net profit slumped to $808m from $2,2bn a year ago as a result of lower crude prices and higher taxes. Market insiders have also named the corporate spat as another downward factor for the company’s operations.

BP formed the 50-50 joint venture with AAR — a consortium representing tycoons Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik — nearly 10 years ago to tap into Russia’s vast energy reserves.

The group is estimated to be worth as much as $60bn.

It is Russia's third-largest oil producer and among the world’s 10 largest private oil companies. Reuters