The recent court ruling invalidating the selection of Hidroelectrica management in 2019 has no impact on the IPO planned for the first part of this year, the company's management assures in a statement released after the Court of Appeal announced its ruling on March 6, quoted by News.ro.

The Court of Appeal rejected Hidroelectrica's appeal to a lower court's ruling issued in April 2022 in the case of the former Hidroelectrica CFO Petronel Chiriac, who challenged the legality of the selection procedures for the company's Board of Directors in 2019. The ruling, furthermore not final, regards only the selection procedure and does not invalidate the mandates of the company's Board of Directors, according to the interpretation expressed by Hidroelectrica's management in its statement.

The mandate of the Board expires in June 2023, and a selection process is on course for appointing a Supervisory Board in charge of setting the selection procedures for a new Board, the company also explains. 

However, a statement quoted by Ziarul Financiar and signed by lawyer Mihai Kehaiyan, who claims to have represented the plaintiff in this process, but does not mention his name, claims that "the five directors of Hidroelectrica no longer have any legal capacity - they can no longer sign documents and can no longer represent society. Practically, they no longer operate as members of the Hidroelectrica Board as of March 1".

The lawyer argued that part of the Board members should have been rejected from the first stages of the selection procedures, as they failed to meet basic requirements such as speaking a foreign language, meeting seniority criteria, or not being in a conflict of interest with the company. 

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Hidroelectrica)