Baroness Arielle Malard de Rothschild, managing director of Rothschild & Cie – an investment bank which is part of Rothschild group and Dutch Michael Adriaan Maria Boersma were elected members in the administrative board of electricity distributor Electrica.

Three Romanians, Victor Cionga, Victor Vlad Grigorescu and Cristian Busu, make the rest of the board.

Baroness de Rothschild has been managing director and vice president for Eastern Europe at Rothschild & Cie Banque since March 2006. She began her career in 1989 at the Lazard bank where she spent 10 years, working as adviser to the Foreign Governments Department. She joined Rothschild & Cie banque in 1999 where she set up and developed the Emerging Markets Department in Paris. She holds a Doctor of Economics from the Institut d’Études Politiques of Paris, with a postgraduate degree in currency, banking & finance from the Assas University (Paris).

Arielle Malard de Rothschild is married to Edouard Etienne Alphonse de Rothschild, a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family, one of the most prominent names in the world of international finance. The Rothschilds, who made their fortunes in the 18^th century, financing the wars between European countries at that time, are still controlling a number of large banks and hold interests in some important listed companies. They also own chateaus, hotels and vineyards in France, as well as large art collections.

Baroness de Rothschild was nominated for Electrica’s board by ING Private Pension Fund, the largest pension fund in Romania, which holds about 5% of the company.

Dutch Michael Adriaan Maria Boersma, former manager in oil and gas group Royal Dutch Shell and former CEO of Dutch utility group Essent, is the second expat who was elected in Electrica’s board. He was nominated for this position by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is the company’s largest minority shareholder, with 8.6% of the shares. He is currently member of the board in eight other companies in the oil&gas and utilities sector.

EBRD had a second nomination, Spanish Pedro Mielgo Alvarez, but he did not get enough votes from shareholders to make the board.

The other three members of the board are all Romanians. One of them is Victor Cionga, managing partner of local consultancy firm AZ Capital Advisors and former CEO of Bucharest Stock Exchange. Cionga was also elected member of the board for state owned electricity producer Hidroelectrica, at the end of last year, but the board was dismissed when the company reentered insolvency, in February this year. Cionga is a former investment banker. He previously worked for Raiffeisen Capital&Investment. Another one is Victor Vlad Grigorescu, who’s working as an expert for Romania’s Energy Department. Both Cionga and Grigorescu were nominated by the state, which still holds 49% of the company.

The fifth member of the board is Cristian Busu, currently member of the board for Romanian investment fund SIF Oltenia. Busu was nominated by SIF Oltenia. He previously had worked as financial director of Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP). Fondul Proprietatea, which is now managed by American group Franklin Templeton, holds minority stakes in Electrica’s main subsidiaries and is trying to negotiate an exit from these firms, which are not listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. From this perspective, Busu’s presence in Electrica’s board is very important for FP.

The election of a new board for Electrica comes after the company was listed both on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in early July this year. The company raised EUR 444 million for 51% of its own shares, from private investors, both foreign and local. EBRD and ING Pension Fund were among the largest private investors.

In order to get EBRD on board as a significant investor, the Romanian state promised to make Electrica an example of corporate governance for other Romanian companies, and to implement European directives in this matter.

Electrica is one of the most valuable companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of EUR 1.02 billion.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com