TNK-BP shows pitfalls of doing business in Russia
In case you’d missed it, Britain is now at war with Russia. No, a new military conflagration hasn’t passed you by. The battle is in the theatre of business. In suitably Churchillian tones, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, deputy chairman of TNK-BP and former secretary general of Nato, yesterday said: “Anyone who cares about the security of international investment and corporate governance should be concerned. This is not about British versus Russian interests as AAR has tried to portray it. It is about the actions of AAR and its affiliated executives and the resulting damage to the company and to Russia.”
The row between BP and AAR, its Russian partners, has dramatically escalated with the joint venture’s chief executive fleeing Russia and going into hiding. AAR reckons this is all part of BP’s “patter of disregarding Russian laws and insisting on special treatment”.
What is certain is that 50:50 joint ventures rarely work, in particular ones forged in distant lands. The shareholder agreement and ownership structure of the joint venture negotiated under Lord Browne’s tenure as BP chief executive was flawed. BP is now paying the price, whatever the rights and wrongs. However, TNK-BP should also stand as a business school case study of what you should be prepared for when doing business in Russia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/25/ccom125.xml#1
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
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