A shake-up of the board of Russian shipowner Sovcomflot (SCF Group) has seen veteran director David Moorhouse leave after 10 years.
The Russian state, as the main shareholder, has brought in seven new board members following the tanker and LNG carrier company's successful $550m Moscow initial public offering in October.
Moorhouse, 74, joined the board in 2010 and was one of two non-Russian directors.
The shipowner told TradeWinds it could not comment on the changes as this was a matter for the Russian state.
The appointments were approved at the company's annual general meeting on 15 June.
Moorhouse stood down as chairman of Braemar Shipping Services in 2018, after 14 years as a director.
Long-serving Lloyd's Register man
Until December 2010, he was the chairman of class society Lloyd’s Register and had been chief executive there from 1999 to 2007.
He was also a director at UK tanker owner James Fisher at that time, but has since left the board.
Sovcomflot chairman Sergey Frank remains on the 11-person board, as does chief executive Igor Tonkovidov.
The other directors to keep their seats are lawyer Walid Chammah, 67, the Lebanese former co-president of Morgan Stanley and now a partner at Chammah & Partners, and Russia's deputy energy minister Pavel Sorokin.
New faces include the only female director, Olga Dergunova, the deputy president and chairman of VTB Bank's management board.
Big names leave the board
Other new directors include Alexey Moiseev, Russia's deputy finance minister, and Alexandr Poshivay, deputy minister of transport.
Four directors are independent, including Dergunova.
Big name departures include Alexey Klyavin, president of the Russian Chamber of Shipping, and Oksana Tarasenko, Russian deputy minister of economic development.
At the meeting, shareholders also allocated RUB 15.8bn ($219m) for dividends covering 2020. This is 84% of the group's profit at RUB 6.67 per share.
The free float of Sovcomflot is now 17.2%, leaving the Russian Federation, previously the sole shareholder, with an 82.8% ownership interest.
