First general meeting of shareholders of NBO Roghun opens in Dushanbe

DUSHANBE, May 26, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The first general meeting of shareholders of joint-stock company (OJSC) NBO Roghun has opened at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe today.  Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov is also attending the meeting.

According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), special centers for registration of shareholders of OJSC NBO Roghun have been set up across the country and the shareholders might familiarize themselves with the meeting’s agenda at those centers.  Each shareholder has the right to participate in the general meeting; for this, he/she just should be registered with the mentioned centers.

The source at a MoF noted that the Agency for Development of Equity Market and Specialized Registrar prepared a list of the shareholders.  He, however, refrained from giving information about the number of shareholders of OJSC NBO Roghun, noting that “such information is a commercial secret.”

In the meantime, the source at OJSC NBO Roghun told Asia-Plus on March 7 that a total number of shareholders is more than 2 million people.  Under the country’s law on joint-stock companies, each of shareholders has voting authority and may participate at general meetings of shareholders, he noted.

We will recall that to raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6, 2010.  Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni (US$1.37 billion) worth of Roghun shares.  They issued shares of different face values (100, 500 and 1,000 somoni) and the Certificates of Shares.  The face value of one certificate of shares is 5,000 somoni.

To-date, the sale of Roghun shares has earned the government 830 million somoni (equivalent to 188.5 million U.S. dollars).

Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov told reporters on January 24 that 22,000 people are holders of the Certificate of Shares and nearly 2 million people are holders of shares of the face values of 100, 500 and 1,000 somoni.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the government assumes the 75% ownership interest (4.5 billion somoni) in the company.