Six Japanese companies of Showa Denko, Kobe Steel, Sumitomo Chemical, Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsubishi Aluminum, and Marubeni invest 20% of the whole investment of CVG Venalm. CVG, the Venezuelan Government agency, has the rest of the shares.

In 2001, the Venezuelan Government revised the article of incorporation for Guyana development that had provided the position and function of CVG, and it provided that it had the right to authorize the revision of the articles of incorporation of CVG subsidiary companies including CVG Venalm. And the amendment of articles of CVG Venalm was requested from CVG to the Japanese stockholders.

The content of the resolution included the deprivation of the Japanese shareholders' right that their agreements to have a quorum by 81% and resolve by 81% or more are needed for important resolutions of the amalgamation, increase and decrease of capital, and amendment of the articles of incorporation, etc. So the Japanese shareholders were against the deprivation. Then, CVG and the Japanese shareholders had dealt with discussion about the other parts of the articles.

However, CVG one-sidedly interrupted the discussion and held the general meeting. It was announced that the bill in the shareholders' meeting had been passed as for CVG Venalm though the Japanese firms submitted the document of the protest.

Showa Denko said that the shareholders' meeting under quorum shortage must be a failure, the resolution of the amendment of the articles, etc. must also be invalid, and that the shareholders' meeting should be held again.