Ilim Pulp Enterprise's (IPE) hopes for a smooth transition into a single business have been dashed. The Russian firm announced plans to merge its operating units into a single new company, Ilim Forest Products Enterprise, with one shareholding at the end of last year. The Russian business newspaper Vedomosti recently reported that IPE presented a forged letter indicating that the government had relinquished its right to use its 'golden share' in Bratsk Pulp and Paper Mill to veto the merger of Bratsk and Kotlas Pulp and Paper Milll at a shareholders meeting in Bratsk on April 20-22. According Continental Management Timber Industry, the government did not give up its right to block the merger. The forestry firm reported that the government's Federal Commission for the Securities Market plans to ask the general prosecutor to investigate IPE for forgery of official documents. IPE fought a long legal battle with Continental Management's parent company, Base Element, following the mining conglomerate's hostile takeover attempt of the Bratsk and Kotlas plants last year. "This is all lies," IPE's director of communications, Slava Bytchkov, countered. IPE's spokesman said the government's representative did not take part in the shareholders' meeting in Bratsk for three reasons. "The commission did not follow the correct procedure to appoint the representative, that was the first mistake. The representative did not present his power of attorney and, lastly, the share registrar in this case the Central Moscow Depositary, received a letter from the government saying it had withdrawn its power of attorney," Bytchkov reported. "The government is pro the single-share process," he added. IPE won several legal cases last year ruling that Base Element's hostile takeover attempt of the Kotlas and Bratsk plants was illegal. IPE switched the registrar of Kotlas' shares from the St Petersburg Banking House to Energoregistrar once the company had bought out the bank's shares in the pulp and paper mill. But it appears that Base Element has not recognized the change in shareholders. According to Continental Management, the lawful shareholders' meeting was held on April 20 and was attended by "the majority shareholders of Bratsk, Continental Management and St Petersburg Banking House". paperloop.com