The stock company Latvijas kuģniecība (Latvian Shipping Company – LASCO) believes that information disseminated by representatives of the stock company Ventspils Nafta (VN) about delays in organising an LASCO shareholder (15.05.2010 www. Financenet, LETA e.t.c. among others)  meeting is linked to disputes among VN shareholders which will result in the loss of jobs by the existing VN management team after a repeated VN shareholder meeting.

Accordingly, businessman Oļegs Stepanovs, who is still on the council of VN as the leading shareholder of  LASCO, and four of his comrades (Godunovs, Kvēps, Grāvītis and Ovods) will not manage to replace LASCO management, which has filed a number of civil suits against companies linked to them and is actively co-operating with the authorities in criminal cases related to major fraud in which Stepanovs himself might be involved.

In this context, LASCO cannot understand the role of Vitol as the leading shareholder in VN, because until now, Vitol has always tried to position itself as a respected international company which is interested only in business and not in protecting individual local authorities from the responsibilities which they must undertake.  LASCO hopes that Vitol and its representatives will take a critical look at whether they should continue to support the interests of Stepanovs’ group, particularly given that there has increasingly been concern in the media about the lawfulness of what that group is doing.  It may be that Vitol representatives have been misled about the essence of Stepanovs’ business operations.

If Vitol is really interested in issues related to the operations of LASCO, management are prepared to resolve issues in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, particularly given Vitol’s aggressive and obstinate policies related to transactions conducted by SIA LASCO Investment.

For more information:

Marita Ozoliņa-Tumanovska

Manager of PR and Advertising Department

Telephone +371-2928-7169, 6702-0120

marita.ozolina@lscgroup.lv