Putin’s invasion of Ukraine forces each of us to evaluate our own actions in relation to Russia. One place of reflection for me is Jolla Oy, where I am an independent member and chairman of the board. Over the years, Jolla has developed a situation in which the company’s largest owner, but not the majority owner, is indirectly Rostelecom. Rostelecom is a Russian listed company in which the Russian State owns about 45%. It would be easy to say that you do not want to work for a company with such a significant indirect ownership by the Russian State.
Jolla has for some time been looking for a shareholding structure that would provide a balanced ownership structure and significantly reduce Russian ownership. The International Investment Bank has been involved in promoting this arrangement. In the new situation, it is now clear that the company has no future without a complete divestment of Russian ownership. The company is trying hard to find an ownership structure that will allow this to happen.
Jolla Oy has already actively run down its Russian business during 2021 and will not generate any revenue from Russia. The only tie is therefore ownership. The company has some really interesting business openings in both the automotive and operating system sectors. Several European countries have long indicated that they would enter into cooperation without delay once the ownership structure is rectified. The company has an ongoing and positive dialogue with Finnish government representatives on these issues. One of Jolla Oy’s important partners is Daimler, and Jolla’s Board of Directors includes a Daimler representative. We have had an ongoing dialogue with Daimler in recent days about the situation, and Daimler’s representation on the board will be maintained.
The aim is therefore to save the company through the ownership structure described above. Jolla Oy is a fine Finnish company, which contributes to maintaining Finnish expertise in the operating system field and which could have a great future ahead of it. As a board member of Jolla Oy, I have Jolla’s interests at heart and not those of Jolla’s owners. Therefore, I will continue to serve on the board for the time being and try to do my part to help rescue the company from a difficult situation. I see this as the responsible way to act.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) In light of feedback on translation, “struggling” changed to “trying hard”.