OREANDA-NEWS. Polyus Gold's Board of Directors appointed Mikhail Prokhorov as new chairman of board, prematurely removing company's director general - Pavel Skitovich, Veles Capital reports. New head of Polyus is Evgeniy Ivanov, starting with October 17, which is current director general of Polyus Geologorazvedka. According to a representative of Interros, the shift of Polyus Gold's management is a sole initiative of Mikhail Prokhorov and was not approved of by other large major of company, Vladimir Potanin. For now it is hard to find solid reasons for change of management at gold mining giant. To remind, until May 2007, Ivanov was already appointed director general of Polyus, and many linked his resignation with division of assets between Prokhorov and Potanin.

So, the return of Ivanov as director and Prokhorov as board chairman means that he is once more interested in gold mining business. According to the experts, occurring shuffles of management could be explained in three ways: First scenario: changes are related to financial failures of company during 1H 2007, which is unlikely. Second scenario: the shift of management could be related to pre-sale preparations. And third scenario: changes flag "return" of Prokhorov, which on its part could also be related with pre-sale preparations. "In any case, such actions of Prokhorov could be directed at acceleration of business sale and division of assets between ex partners, or towards general development of business to delay "divorce", which could also be taken negatively by the market. Fundamentally, this news is neutral in our opinion. Recommendation  "accumulate" is  confirmed for shares of Polyus Gold," analysts conclude.