In the end, Argentine President Christina Kirchner got the better of the Rocca family. The tug of war that had lasted for months between the steel giant Techint, controlled by the Italian company Tenaris, and the government of the South American country can be said to have ended, at least for now. The board of directors of Siderar, a company controlled by Techint, yesterday approved the appointment of three state representatives to its board. The new board will be composed of 11 members, 8 of whom will represent Ternium (majority shareholder of Siderar) and 3 who will take the place of the executive through Anses, the national insurance institution which owns 25,9% of Siderar .
But the decision was not unanimous. Only one of Kirchner's three favorites was able to count on private support. It is Francisco Cudós, a union leader of the Metallurgical Union, who was already director of the company in the name of the shares owned by the workers.
The dispute had been going on since April when the Argentine company had refused to appoint representatives of the executive in the name of a law which prohibited political entities from exercising voting rights for more than 5% of the shares held. But the President, with a decree law has eliminated this limit.
Another point on which there were conflicting opinions during the meeting was the payment of a total dividend of 350 million dollars. In reality, the company controlled by Argentinean Techint had ordered the payment of an effective dividend of 97,7 million dollars, but due to pressure from shareholders, the amount increased until it reached the figure originally envisaged.
