OREANDA-NEWS  On 14 October was announced, that the Consortium of the Russian Institute of Directors and Expert RA rating agency - RID - Expert RA - awarded IDGC of Centre, JSC, the NCGR 7 corporate governance rating "Developed Corporate Governance Practice" under the scale of the National Corporate Governance Rating.

Improvement of the rating means that IDGC of Centre runs low risks of corporate governance; the company observes requirements of the Russian legislation in the field of corporate governance, follows a greater part of recommendations of the Russian Corporate Governance Conduct Code and separate recommendations of the international advanced corporate governance practice.

Let us remind that in 2007 IDGC of Centre received the certificate for awarding the NCGR 6+ corporate governance rating "Developed practice of corporate governance" under the scale of the National Corporate Governance Rating. 

"Since the moment of awarding the National Corporate Governance Rating (NCGR) in July 2007, the Company's corporate governance activities have undergone a number of changes connected with introduction of the major institutions in the field of protection of the rights of shareholders and activities of governance and control authorities which at the previous structure of shareholders could not be realized," said Ekaterina Nikitchanova, the Head of the Expert Center of the Russian Institute of Directors. "Thus, we estimate the IDGC of Centre’s corporate governance practice to be high from the point of view of protection of shareholders' rights".

Within this period, the company finished the reform process which provided interregional integration of newly created enterprises after division of power companies by lines of business. Formation of the target structure of IDGC of Centre was completed by a merger of 11 distribution grid companies with it in the form of branches and the company’s transition to the uniform share.

IDGC of Centre is a public company: since 21 May 2008 the Company's shares have been trading on the JSC "MICEX Stock Exchange" and JSC "RTS".

As a result of the reform, the structure of the Company's share capital significantly changed: minority shareholders appeared in it. The main large Company's shareholder today is IDGC Holding, JSC, with its stake in the authorized capital of 50.23%.

The experts of the consortium emphasized key positive features which influenced the increase in the rating. They include the fact that functions of registration of proprietorship to the Company shares are performed by the independent registrar - JSC "Central Moscow Depositary"; IDGC of Centre carries out competitive selection of suppliers of goods and services; the company involves independent appraisers in other cases than those stipulated by the legislation. IDGC of Centre also implements procedures providing high independence of external auditors which are chosen on the basis of competitive selection.

The experts estimate IDGC of Centre's practice to be good from the point of view of the structure and organization of work of governance and control bodies. The consortium experts outlined among the key positive features of this practice that the Company Board of Directors provides necessary balance of interests for its independence from the management. Besides, presence of the minority shareholders in its structure proves its balance from the point of view of taking into account interests of all interested parties. Moreover, the Company Board of Directors carries out a number of the key functions guaranteeing a high role of the Board of Directors in the Company's corporate governance system.

The level of the Company's corporate governance from the point of view of information disclosure is high.  IDGC of Centre took a number of essential steps to provide transparency of its activities and continuation of this practice in the future. 

The practice in the field of the corporate social responsibility and taking into account the interests of other interested parties was estimated as good.

"The rating improvement is the result of our making efforts for improvement of the corporate governance in IDGC," the Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre for Corporate Governance Konstantin Kotikov said. "But at the same time, the assignment of the rating becomes a greater stimulus in our further work. We are not in full satisfied with what has already been achieved. Our next goal is to enter the sector of the "advanced" corporate governance practice."

For the further improvement of its activities, the company is going to prepare the social reporting, and to certify its activities in the field of the environment preservation in compliance with the ISO 14000 standard.