Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:36

Financial watchdog calls on Olainfarm to respect rights of shareholders

BC, Riga, 29.03.2019.Print version
The Finance and Capital Market Commission (FKTK) has called on Olainfarm pharmaceutical company to respect the rights of shareholders to convene meetings, the commission’s representative Ieva Upleja said LETA/BNS.

FKTK sees that the decision of Olainfarm board to cancel an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting called on April 1 is a brach of shareholders’ rights.

Upleja reminded that, according to published information, Olainfarm board said it cancelled an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, called on April 1, as the request for the shareholders’ meeting had been signed by persons not on the list of the company’s official shareholders. The persons in question are Nika Saveljeva, a daughter of Olainfarm’s late owner Valerijs Maligins, and Signe Baldere-Sildedze, the custodian of Maligins’ youngest daughter Anna Emilija Maligina. The Olainfarm board therefore considers the request for the shareholders’ meeting legally invalid.

According to FKTK, such a decision is questionable and does not comply with the procedure set in the Nasdaq Central Securities Depositary

Meanwhile, Olainfarm council chairman Pavels Rebenoks told LETA that the company’s international shareholders have sent a letter to Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity), Justice Minister Janis Bordans (New Conservative Party), Economics Minister Ralfs Nemiro (KPV LV), Interior Minister Sandis Girgens (KPV LV) and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (new Unity), voicing concerns about the situation.

The international institutional shareholders from the US, Sweden and Estonia voiced their surprise about the situation, when, despite the company’s official decisions and statements to the Nasdaq stock exchange, shareholders “unilaterally and spontaneously” had called shareholders’ meeting alrady for Monday, April 1.


In addition to such a short notice, international investors are also worried because no official means of communication had been used, apart from a press release in local language.


Investors have asked Latvian officials and state institutions to follow and respect legislation that aims to protect interests of all shareholders, including international investors, so that Latvia can retail the reputation of a safe and desirable place of investments.


As reported, earlier the Olainfarm board said it cancelled an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, called on April 1, as the request for the shareholders’ meeting had been signed by persons not on the list of the company’s official shareholders. The persons in question are Nika Saveljeva, a daughter of Olainfarm’s late owner Valerijs Maligins, and Signe Baldere-Sildedze, the custodian of Maligins’ youngest daughter Anna Emilija Maligina. The Olainfarm board therefore considers the request for the shareholders’ meeting legally invalid.


Meanwhile, Olainfarm’s largest shareholder Olmafarm, which belongs in equal parts to Maligins’ daughters – Irina Maligina, Anna Emilija Maligina and Saveljeva – has called on shareholders to turn out for the announced shareholders’ meeting on April 1, claiming that the company’s management board has yielded to unlawful pressure from the supervisory board and cancelled the meeting in sheer violation of legislative provisions.


Olainfarm makes medicines, food supplements, active pharmaceutical ingredients and chemical substances. Olainfarm shares are quoted on the Main List of the Nasdaq Riga stock exchange.


Olainfarm council member Martins Kriekis said that the company calls on shareholders “not to fall for disinformation and not to participate in a campaign organized by raiders with an atempt to put one of Latvia’s largest companies in chaos”.


Nasdaq Riga stock exchange has suspended trading with shares in Olainfarm pharmaceutical company due to disagreements among shareholders, the Riga bourse reported,


Nasdaq Riga bour today decided to reverse its March 27, 2019, decision to suspend trading in Olainfarm shares taking into account the application submitted by the company requesting not to suspend the trading.


However, due to the contradictory information in the mass media which might become an obstacle to transparent and fair trading, the Nasdaq Riga decided to suspend trading in Olainfarm shares with the start of the April 1, 2019 Exchange trading session,







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