Lukoil boss resigns

The head of Russia’s second-largest private oil company, Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov, has surprisingly resigned from his post and is also stepping down from the company’s supervisory board. The group announced this on Thursday without giving reasons for the decision.

Catarina Wagner

Business correspondent for Russia and the CIS based in Moscow.

Nothing is known about a successor either. Alekperov, 71, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at $10.5 billion and who is considered the 10th richest Russian, was sanctioned by Britain and Australia in mid-April over Russia’s war of aggression. in Ukraine. There is speculation in the Russian media that the resignation may have something to do with punitive measures – possibly to prevent damage to Lukoil.

Other Russian businessmen have already resigned from management positions because of personal sanctions. The founder of conglomerate AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenko, recently resigned from the supervisory board and handed over a block of shares to his son after being fined by the UK. Alekperov owns 3.12% of the group listed on the Moscow and London Stock Exchange with voting rights and 5.43% without voting rights; he is therefore not a majority shareholder.

In 1991, Alekperov, who came from a family of Azerbaijani oil workers, co-founded the initially state-owned oil company “LangepasUrajKogalymneft”, which included some of the best Russian oil deposits. In 1993, the company was renamed “Lukoil” and transformed into a limited liability company, which Alekperov had managed since 1993.

Alekperov was Deputy Oil Minister in the Soviet Union and is considered a loyal companion of President Vladimir Putin. However, the supervisory board of his company, which accounts for 2% of the world’s oil production, expressed its “concern” about the “tragic events” in Ukraine in early March and called for a “swift possible end to the armed conflict and its solution through negotiations and diplomatic means”. This caused outrage in the Kremlin-affiliated media.