OREANDA-NEWS. On May 27, 2008, the Board of Directors of the Open Joint-Stock Second Generation Company of the wholesale electricity market accepted the letter of voluntary resignation from Mikhail Kuzichev, OGK-2 General Director.

Pursuant to the 3-year employment contracts signed this January, all of the company’s top managers including the Director, if dismissed by agreement of the parties, were entitled to one-off maximum disbursements of 24-36 monthly salaries depending on a contract term served.

On May 30 practically all of the top managers simultaneously submitted letters of resignation and the General Director accepted those on the terms of maximum disbursements accounting in aggregate for RUB 557 mln. Such a “demarche” of the company’s top managers hadn’t been agreed upon and is denounced by OGK-2 shareholders.

The said one-ff maximum disbursements were effected out of borrowed funds. Such actions expose a public company, OGK-2 in this case, to considerable financial and trendy risks, which might have a negative effect on the company’s investment ratings and hinder the implementation of OGK-2 investment program and the targeted second stage of the company’s IPO.

Gazprom and RAO UES of Russia consider the actions of Mikhail Kuzichev unreasonably risky and inconsistent with the corporate ethics of public company directors.

Gazprom will take all the necessary measures stipulated by Russian law so as to prevent financial damage arisen from the actions of Mikhail Kuzichev. At the same time, Gazprom as a shareholder of the Second Wholesale Power Generating Company has initiated on June 3, 2007 a full-scale revision of the company’s assets in order to obtain an objective estimation of OGK-2 current bottom lines as well as to review the legitimacy of the actions of the former management in the production and economic areas.