OREANDA-NEWS. Yesterday, the Board of Directors of JSOC Bashneft made a decision to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company on December 17, 2013, approved its agenda and set the date for compiling a list of persons entitled to participate in the meeting at November 5, 2013.

The Board of Directors decided to recommend that the General Meeting of Shareholders should approve dividend payments for the nine months of 2013 amounting to 199 roubles per ordinary registered share and per preferred registered share of JSOC Bashneft. Thus, if the Meeting of Shareholders gives its approval, about 45.25 billion roubles will be allocated for interim dividend payments.

Earlier, in June 2013, the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Bashneft decided to pay dividends for 2012 amounting to 24 roubles per ordinary registered share and per preferred registered share of JSOC Bashneft. Dividend payments totalling about 5.32 billion roubles were made in August 2013.

The Board of Directors also decided that Bashneft Investments S.A., Bashneft's wholly owned subsidiary, should have a stake in the authorized share capital of JSOC Bashneft. In accordance with this decision, Bashneft Investments S.A. will exercise its right to buy back 832,082 ordinary shares and 4,730,528 preferred shares of JSOC Bashneft from United Platform S.A. (Luxembourg) for up to USD 260 million.

The said shares of Bashneft comprising about 2.45% of its authorized share capital were bought back by the Company as part of its reorganization in 2012. In June 2013 these blocks of shares were sold to United Platform S.A. for USD 257 million in order to optimize Bashneft's financial investments; Bashneft was granted the right to buy back these shares within six months after making the transaction.

Bashneft's Board of Directors also approved the nomination of Vladislav Pozdyshev to the position of Vice President for Human Resources and included him in the Company's Management Board, where he will replace Denis Kurtov, who had held this position earlier.

Vladislav Pozdyshev was born on April 10, 1970. In 1992 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Saint Petersburg State University; in 2001 he completed an Executive MBA programme at Stockholm School of Economics in Saint Petersburg. From 1993 to 1997 Mr. Pozdyshev headed the branch of CJSC Reebok Russia (Retail) in Saint Petersburg. From 1997 to 2003 he held the positions of Vice President, General Manager, and Director of Operations in Mary Kay in Western Europe, the position of General Manager of CJSC Mary Kay (Ukraine), and headed the office of CJSC Mary Kay in Saint Petersburg. From 2005 to 2007 he served as the Deputy Director of MTS Russia Business Unit, the Director of the Customer Care Department, a Project Director at OJSC MTS. In 2008 - 2009 Mr. Pozdyshev held the position of Director for Organizational Development in OJSC KIT Finance Investment Bank and the post of Director for Business Development in CJSC Svyaznoy Group. From 2009 to 2013 he worked for Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (MTS India) as the Chief Human Resources and Administrative Officer and the Chief Organizational Excellence and Customer Experience Officer.