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Its not surprising the FCA decided to suspend the evr listing even though EVR is after all a uk incorporated firm, it has significant and potentially sensitive operations in Russia that would become a major problem politically in times of war. The LSE is now powerless to restore trading until the fca decides what to do with the listing and that it seems will also depend on what UKGOV wants. Some posters have suggested that evr should sue the fca but that’s nigh on impossible given that it is protected under the 2012 financial services act. The fca writes its own rules and is in effect judge, jury and executioner to all firms on the official list. The wording on its announcement is also relevant but not perhaps in the way some posters have interpreted. Of course the FCA is likely fully aware of the scope of sanctions and it’s naive to think they wouldnt be despite all the smoke and mirrors. Even so, I can’t see how the “self-sanctioning” by the international community wont put a huge strain on EVR cash flow for the foreseeable future and only time will tell how much of an impact the likely literally overnight collapse in its order book will have had or whether it will be limited to its Russian operations. Personally I think EVR should have remained admitted to trading to allow shareholders to continue to exit if they wanted to and particularly in the event of a protracted war which EVR of course may not survive. I guess it was the prospect of RA selling his stake that prompted the FCA to go for what appears to be a unilateral, which is in itself a very rare event. However given the reputational risk to any broker that might have executed that sale, I doubt any of them would have taken it on anyway. Today’s resignation of directors is potentially another nail in the coffin because without a fully functioning board the FCA won’t restore and that could be the first steps towards a protracted time in suspension or even a delist if potential new board members are not willing to be appointed. Its all in the Listing Rules for those that want to learn more.
It’s a shame because, as many posters have pointed out, EVR was doing rather well before war broke out and there is a slim possibility it might do again if there is a swift resolution to the hostilities.

I think the debt holders are in the business of lending money and not holding shares probably regardless of whether they like the company or not it’s just not their mandate to hold stock.
The plus side to all these lock ups is that there is a very small freefloat in available shares to buy which when combined with a strong catalyst in the shape of Tolmount should see the share price rise way beyond what it might have done had there been better liquidity.
I only hold 3 shares - HBR, SQZ and IOG and expect all of them to double this year

@Harry
There’s a couple of good articles that explain the overhang with Bloomberg being the better but it’s behind a paywall.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-06/premier-oil-goodbye-massive-short-position-hello-big-overhang
And Reuters
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKL8N2KS4TO

Reuters seems to suggest that the creditors elected to take up the full 18% of new shares rather than the reduced 10.5% plus cash. Therefore maybe ARCM did have a position afterall and have not disclosed it.
It seems the FCA would look into non disclosure of major positions which falls under the DTRs and the FCA have fined ARCM before.
https://www.fca.org.uk/markets/primary-markets/contact/complaint-against-issuer

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-arcm-breaches-short-selling-disclosure-rules

You can see from the articles that creditors got 61c in the dollar for their debt plus shares and therefore when the share price rises to a certain level (I havnt worked out what that is) they would sell their allocation to recoup their missing 39c.

With nothing better to do, I had a look at the PMO circular which is still on HBr website
https://www.harbourenergy.com/media/e2nj2kbw/premier-oil-2021-shareholder-circular-and-notice-of-gm.pdf
Page 20 provides a table of the former creditors potential position post the restructure. It appears that the 18% holding (which I assume was the ARCM holding) would be reduced to 10.53% if a cash alternative was chosen.
Comparing that 10.53% to the TR1 disclosures, it closely matches the combined positions disclosed by Goldman Sachs (6.4%) and Marshfield (4.7%). Given the absence of a TR1 by ARCM, it may be possible that they never actually owned shares when HBR was admitted to trading and could theoretically have split their position and sold it to these two investors beforehand. Given that the associated lock up has apparently expired and there has been no subsequent TR1 disclosures to suggest a reduction by either Goldman or Marshall, that means that the former creditor positions have not sold down at all and therefore are not responsible for the selling pressure or for the share price being stuck in its current range. If this theory is right (and I’m only speculating based on the public information available) it therefore begs the question: who is selling?

My understanding was that ARCM converted it’s debt and short position into about 17% of new harbour equity which was locked in until some time around autumn last year. Since then they have been free to sell and I expect that this weakness is due to ARCM continuing to offload it’s 17%. What confuses me is that the disclosure requirements under dtr5.1.2 would require them to inform the company each time their holding falls through a 1% change ie from 17% down to 16% and so on. But there don’t seem to be any tr1 disclosures for ARCM at all let alone any showing a sustained reduction.
ARCM got slapped by the FCA for failing to disclose its short position in PMO so are they making the same mistake again by failing to disclose their sales of Harbour shares? Eventually this 17% will have been sold but until then looks like the shares are stuck in the current range.

With Russia now threatening to turn off gas to europe this stock can only go one way. Am expecting big rerates in Sqz, Hbr and Iog this year.
Looks like the majors won’t buy Russian oil either so heading for a perfect storm in energy markets

@Judge EVR trades on SETS1 which is an open order book with automatic matching. There are no market makers formulating the price - those days are long gone.

MPeterson the point is that this dividend that’s coming up is NOT a final dividend. The company can cancel this one at any time it likes right up to the supposed payment date. Whether it does or not remains to be seen.

My understanding is that once a final div is declared then shareholders have the right to sue the company for it if the company decides not to pay.

The final results announcement from 25 February clearly states that it is an interim dividend.

“An interim dividend of US$729 million (US$0.50 per share) has been declared, reflecting the Board's confidence in the Group's financial position and outlook. “

That means under the listing rules there is no obligation for the dividend to be paid even after it goes ex-div.

Might even be 60 days prior to finals

Pdmrs will be in a close period now and restricted from buying (as are their spouses and connected persons) who are also subject to article 19 of MAR. The period lasts for the 30 days before announcement of the results

Cookie this isn’t a place to get advice! Just the musings of interested market participants.
How do you value a company that has $2bn of debt and can’t sell any of its products anymore and asset values would be at fire sale prices? On that basis it’s probably already worthless surely? That’s what the market seems to be pricing in. The gamble is if you think the war will end and the market will want to buy EVR steel in the future and whether is healthy enough financial state to pick up where it left off? Sure, in that case it has potential for a strong bounce back. I just don’t see it happening any time soon. But just my view and not intended as a de ramp. The time to safely short this has probably passed

The overhang is an interesting one. Private equity will by its nature seek to realise its investment and move on to alternative opportunities at some point. The price at which they sell could be taken by the market as an indicator that they think it’s fully priced at that level or equally it may be just that there are alternative opportunities elsewhere that they want to put their cash. But I very much doubt that the stock will be dumped or dribbled through the market and instead there will likely be a book build and placing with institutions who may be presently sitting on the sidelines waiting to take a reasonable sized 3 or 4 pc stake. If institutions wanted to buy at that size through the market now then the shares would move significantly higher due to the relatively low liquidity and free float. That’s probably why they are waiting is my guess. Placings are often priced slightly lower that spot but if demand is strong can easily be higher. Once the uncertainty of the overhang has gone then hopefully the share price will start to reflect the fundamentals a bit more closely.

Squid the fundamentals do not apply anymore. There is or soon will be, no demand and no market but a great pile of debt to service. Unless that changes, then the outcome is certain.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russian-oil-trade-disarray-over-sanctions-ships-turned-back-2022-03-01/

No one wants to buy Russian oil even when it’s for sale at massively discounted prices and isn’t even subject to sanctions (yet). Brent marched up to $118 tonight as markets seek to adjust without the Russian contribution regardless of whether Putin turns off their taps - no one wants to buy it anyway. Same will happen with EVR steel - it’s pariah status will see it bust in two years. Dividend almost certainly will be cancelled and cash burn will soar.

With oil at 118 at the moment, this should have another good day tomorrow. Finally got some momentum in the run up to results despite ongoing Tolmount disappointment. However they have announced it would be on line in Q1 and given there has been no RNS to say the contrary, then presumably they must have no reason to believe that the target cannot be met.

EVR appears to have $2.6bn of debt. How will it service this debt if international markets for its products have dried up? Cash flow will grind to a halt. It will eventually have difficulty rolling over debt, struggle to refinance and go bust. Anyone buying this stock would I guess be betting on the war ending quickly and a return to “normal”. Can’t see it happening myself.
This is classic barge pole stock

Lots of misinformation regarding listing here.
The FCA is responsible for maintaining the official list and regulates how a company behaves while it’s listed. It has absolute discretion on whether to unilaterally suspend a stock but provides guidance on the circumstances it would do so which is usually when a company cannot verify its financial position. Once on the official list, a company is then admitted to trading on a regulated exchange. The exchange does not itself regulate the company or decide on whether it remains on the official list. The FCA will take instruction from the treasury so if they say suspend it then they will.