Gold miner Petropavlovsk faces shareholder revolt as splinter group aims to oust all directors and reinstate old guard

London-listed gold miner Petropavlovsk, founded by mining magnate Peter Hambro, is facing a shareholder revolt as two investors have proposed resolutions to oust all the company’s directors.

Cabs Platform and Slevin, which together hold 9.11 per cent of the Russia-located business, instead want to reinstate former directors Pavel Maslovskiy, Roderic Lyne and Robert Jenkins.

The two investors seem to be trying to reverse the decision of a group of shareholders who shook up Petropavlovsk’s top management last year.

Read more: Peter Hambro faces war on two fronts as Petropavlovsk row heats up

A rebel group of shareholders comprised of Renova, the conglomerate owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, M&G and hedge fund Sothic Capital Management voted successfully to oust Hambro from his company last summer.

Just a month later, Petropavlovsk’s chief executive and co-founder Maslovskiy resigned saying the time had come for him to hand over.

Shareholder advisory group ISS supported Hambro’s ousting, saying there was a “compelling case” for board-level change.

At the time, Russian media said that Renova wanted to launch a takeover of the company.

But Renova has since sold its stake to Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakh oligarch, through his Fincraft Holdings investment business.

Withough the support of Fincraft and Petropavlovsk’s other major shareholders, who include Russia’s VTB Bank and US-based investment firm DE Shaw & Co., Cabs Platform and Slevin will be unlikely to get anywhere with their resolution.

Read more: Petropavlovsk’s top shareholder Kenes Rakishev warns of a “worrying lack of ambition” for 2018