Word: browder
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...Browder has been one of the few foreigners to engage Russia's economic oligarchs in battle. In late 1997 he took on Vladimir Potanin, at the time Russia's top banker. Potanin had offered a closed bond issue for Sidanko, a major oil company that was one of his pet properties, to insiders of his own choosing. Browder cried foul and adroitly used the Western press to plead his case that the new shares arising from the bond issue would dilute minority shareholders' stakes. In the end, Russia's Federal Securities Commission canceled the issue...
This summer Browder was back at it, heading up a very public fight against another Russian titan. This time his target was Anatoli Chubais, chief of Russia's electricity giant, Unified Energy Systems. Chubais had proposed to restructure UES by selling off regional subsidiaries at their value at the time. The plan, Browder claims, amounted to "asset stripping, pure and simple." He rallied 45 Western investors, who owned 15% of the company, to call for Chubais' ouster and demand that the UES charter be rewritten to their tastes...
...July, Browder was summoned to the Kremlin, where he helped negotiate a deal to ensure greater transparency in UES. "We got the state [which owns 53% of UES] to vote with us," he crows. In late October all sides struck a deal to tailor the UES charter to take into account minority shareholders' interests. "Chubais will stay," Browder says, "but we've made it impossible for management to strip assets...
Russia is still far from a healthy free market. But Browder is determined to persevere. His battles in Russia's unbridled market have pushed him to the vanguard of investors, both foreign and native, who yearn for a rule of law in Russia. Of course, not everyone in the country is ready to fight fair. But Bill Browder is prepared to keep his guard up and go the distance...
...Kerbel] has said publicly that he got the idea from Dr. Browder, and it's nice to have it repeated," Folkman said...