JKX Board Faces Sacking Threat

JKX, the UK-based independent producer in Russia and Ukraine, has received a request for a vote on firing all seven of its current directors at its AGM.

This followed a request on April 20 from Eclairs Group – a JKX shareholder with 27.5% of voting shares – that Michael Bakunenko be appointed a director of JKX at its next annual general meeting (AGM). Bakunenko, who has been critical of JKX in the past, manages the interests of Eclairs on behalf of its controlling owner Igor Kolomoisky who is one of Ukraine's richest oligarchs.

In an announcement in the afternoon of May 5, JKX said that "read together, these requests appear to indicate that Eclairs' aim is for Mr Bakunenko to be appointed as the sole director" of JKX which would put it breach of both the UK Companies Act and its constitutional documents.

The JKX board said it is seeking advice as to what recommendations should be put to shareholders in response to these requests and will revert in due course. In the meantime, it advised shareholders to take no further action. A spokesman for the company said the AGM has to be held by June 30 2017 but that a date is not yet finalised. 

JKX has recently been publicly critical of what it alleges as harassment by the Ukrainian police. The company was recently also served a writ seeking to annul a recent award by an international arbitration tribunal that favoured JKX at the expense of Ukraine's government.

The new board members took office early last year, replacing the old guard in a cash-free coup; but the new CEO Tom Reed warned shareholders of the legacy challenges the company faced in the law courts.

Mark Smedley