Rumours confirmed (320 words)

Published: 4/12/2001

Alexander Polyakov president of OAO Tupolev, has confirmed rumors of changes in the management of ZAO Aviastar-JV in Ulyanovsk, at a meeting with employees at the plant. General Director Gennady Korotnev is to retire, although it appears the decision may not have been entirely his own, owing something to the OAO Tupolev board. According to reports, Korotnev will be accompanied into his retirement by some of his deputies, information as to whom however, is unavailable. The “retirement” requires the approval of shareholders, who were supposed to meet on the 12th of April, but according to the company no meeting took place or is scheduled. Until that meeting Korotnev remains General Director, but in a role that can only be characterized as that of a lame duck. The changes in the plant's management have been driven by investors, who according to Polyakov quoted in press reports, are unhappy at the value of the company's stock, now trading at 4% of its par value of 1 ruble and the fact that no dividend has been paid. The removal of Korotnev comes after events earlier this year when Yury Kolpakov was also "retired" from his position as General Director of OAO Aviastar to a role within ZAO Aviastar, and was replaced by 36-year-old OAO Aviastar manager Sergey Kartashov. The suspicion at the time was that Kolpakov's departure was a result of his association with the region's previous governor Yury Goryachev. Goryachev's replacement, Putin loyalist General Vladimir Shamanov, was said to have influenced the OAO Aviastar 's board inreplacing the incumbent despite a very small state shareholding of 6.4%. It would appear with the company's integration into OAO Tupolev, where the state holds 50%, the task just gets easier and exhibits all the signs of a changing of the guard at the Ulyanovsk producer.

Article ID: 2487