And even if it isn’t likely to see much order for a while, the market is certainly seeing plenty of laws.
A newly adopted company law is designed, among other things, to protect minority shareholders from dilutive share issues, prohibit companies from selling stock to majority holders at big discounts and bar the practice of switching annual general meetings to out-of-the-way locations at the last minute to discourage shareholders (particularly foreign ones) from attending. Moreover, Kostikov’s agency, the Federal Commission for the Securities Market, has been given new powers to crack down on corrupt executives. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov backs its 78-page code of conduct.
Foreign shareholders welcome the new laws and the code. But as Pictet fund manager Jury Ostrowsky, who oversees $1 billion in Russian and Eastern Europe investments, puts it: “Laws and codes are one thing. What we would like to see is more enforcement.” For his part, Kostikov, 43, concedes that “we also need to change the culture.” For a start, the commission might look into the activities of some of the powerful oligarchs who run Russia’s largest companies.
