Latsis group seeking deputy director post on ELPE board

The two main shareholders at ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), Paneuropean Oil, a member of the Latsis corporate group, holding a 45.47 percent stake, and the Greek State, which maintains a 35 percent share, have just about reached an agreement for board revisions, expected to be  finalized today, a source directly involved in the talks has informed.

Though Paneuropean Oil is ELPE’s biggest shareholder, it is represented by just two officials on the refinery’s 13-member board.

The Latsis group, pushing for greater administrative control, will most likely be given a deputy director post enabling a company official to serve alongside ELPE’s chairman Stathis Tsotsoros and managing director Grigoris Stergioulis. It remains unclear how the executive powers would be divided in such a case.

ELPE is scheduled to stage an annual shareholders’ meeting tomorrow, rescheduled from a month earlier, possibly as a result of disagreements between the two main shareholders.

Certain sorces attributed the disagreement to issues concerning the development of Hellenikon, the former Athens International Airport, a prime seaside expanse in southern Athens in which the Latsis group holds an interest.

An agreement today would be presented to ELPE’s shareholders tomorrow.