Novatek, Russia’s largest independent gas producer, has hired Alexander Palivoda for its investor relations department.
Palivoda, a former head of IR at state-owned oil giant Rosneft, began work yesterday as Novatek announced its second quarter and half-year results.
‘We have hired a new IR person,’ Mark Gyetvay, Novatek’s CFO, said on a conference call, reports Bloomberg. ‘His starting day was today.’
Novatek has picked up a number of awards over the last five years for its IR efforts. In 2008 the gas company won two awards at the IR Magazine Russia & CIS Awards: best investor meetings and best IR by a CFO for Gyetvay.
‘The recognition of these investor relations awards underscores our fundamental commitments toward achieving an organization founded on the principles of sound corporate governance, transparency and best practices in investor relations,’ said Gyetvay at the time.
At same awards in 2009, Gyetvay walked away with the prize for best IR by a CEO or CFO, and in 2010 the company’s then IR chief Gregory Madick won best IR officer at a large cap.
In its results, Novatek revealed that second quarter profits had declined by 33 percent as a result of lower oil prices and weakening of the Russian rouble.
The company, controlled by chairman Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko through his Luxembourg-based fund Volga Resources, is listed on Russia’s MICEX-RTS exchange and has global DRs traded on the London Stock Exchange.
