Malev appoints new chairman

Anatoly Ballo, deputy Chairman of Vnesheconombank, having resigned his position on the Supervisory Board, was elected by the General Assembly to become a member of the Board of Directors, which then - in a session after the General Assembly - voted him Chairman of the Board of Directors. Alexander Tikhomirov, staff member of Vnesheconombank, was also appointed to the Board of Directors. Alexander Tikhomirov has worked in the field of Hungarian-Russian economic and financial relations for 20 years.

The General Assembly acknowledged and accepted the resignation, effective 10-Feb-09, of Péter Leonov from his position on the Board of Directors. He resigns from his post as Chief Executive Officer of Malév by mutual agreement. Chief Operational Officer Géza Fehérváry takes over the running of the airline on a temporary basis. The Malév Board, thanking Péter Leonov for his work, will continue negotiations, which are in an advanced state, for the airline to be able to appoint a new CEO.

As the first step in a move to settle the capital position of Malév the General Assembly voted on reducing the airline's equity capital to HUF 360 million. Principal owner AirBridge Zrt. has not yet put forward a proposal on increasing the equity capital because the transformation of the ownership structure - involvement of new investor(s) in the capital increase - has not yet been completed. Once this process is concluded - potentially even before the convening of a new General Assembly (planned on 03-Mar-09) - Vnesheconombank remains prepared to continue financing Malév through AirBridge Zrt.




(C) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 11-Feb-09