On March 17 JSC Ventspils nafta (VN) sent an official letter to the Management Board and Supervisory Council of JSC Latvijas Kuģniecība (LASCO), as well as to the Register of Enterprises and Financial and Capital Market Comission with a request to convene the annual shareholders’ meeting of LASCO no later than April 26, to approve the financial report of 2009. VN has proposed the following agenda for this meeting: approval of annual reports for 2009, utilization of profit of 2009, election of auditors for the audit of the annual reports for 2010.

The annual shareholders’ meeting of LASCO according to the Financial Instrument Market Law should take place no later than 4 months after the end of the reporting period to approve the audited accounts for 2009. Moreover, VN has convened a general annual shareholders meeting to be held on April 28 and has included approval of 2009 reports in the agenda. Since LASCO is associated company to VN, in order for VN to comply with the requirements of the Financial Instrument Market Law the annual report for LASCO has to be approved before VN’s annual shareholders meeting. Taking into account that LASCO would have to publish information on convening annual shareholders’ meeting 30 days before it is actually taking place and taking into account that it is already March 26, but no information on convening the annual shareholders’ meeting of LASCO has been publically announced, VN believes that LASCO is avoiding convening shareholders meeting.

VN also stresses that information distributed by LASCO on March 25 stating that an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting has already been convened is false as VN, as the major shareholder, was not informed of the time and place of such meeting. In addition no information on the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of LASCO was published in either of the official reporting systems or in media. According to the regulations of Riga Stock Exchange (NASDAQ OMX Riga) and the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) in order for an extraordinary shareholders meeting to be considered convened, there has to be public announcement on the information systems of NASDAQ OMX and the FCMC. VN holds information that FCMC has started investigation regarding this information not being published according to the law and regulations.

VN emphasizes that taking into account 20,2 million USD losses of LASCO reported in the non audited report for 2009, it is in the best interest of all LASCO shareholders to convene a shareholders’ meeting as soon as possible to review the financial performance of the company in 2009 and implement a recovery strategy for the company to become stable and return to profitability. A profitable company is in the best interests of all shareholders, including the State, which owns 10% of the company through the State Social Insurance Agency.
 

Zane Bojāre
„Ventspils nafta” PR Manager
E-mail: zane.bojare@vnafta.lv
Phone: 67821691; 29706733